how to find primary sources for a research paper

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Finding primary sources.

The Library of Congress makes millions of unique primary sources available online to everyone, everywhere. There are a few different ways to discover the best primary sources for you.

Select from a curated set

Primary Source Sets – Each set collects primary sources on a specific frequently-taught topic, along with historical background information and teaching ideas.

Free to Use and Reuse Sets – Batches of primary sources on engaging topics.

U.S. History Primary Sources Timeline – Explore important topics and moments in U.S. history through historical primary sources from the Library’s collections.

Search the online collections

Successful searches of the online collections of the Library of Congress, as with any archival research institution, begin with an understanding of what is likely to be found. Many considerations, including copyright, collection strengths, and how materials were acquired, factor into what can be digitized and made available online. The Library’s online collections are extensive, but they do have limits, and are strongest in the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth century.

Use the search box at the top of the Library of Congress home page . A few tips:

• Before starting your search take a moment to make a list of possible search terms.
• Remember that different words or phrases may have been used to describe events or items in the past. For example: In the past the flu was sometimes known as the grippe.
• People or places may have been identified differently or may have used different names previously. For example: Eleanor Roosevelt may be known as Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt.
• There may be different spellings for names or places during the period you’re researching.
• Use the drop-down menu to the left of the search box to select a format, like Maps, before you search.
• To the left you will see a list of ways to narrow your search results. Scroll to the bottom to Access Condition and select “Available Online.”
• Scroll back to the top and narrow your search results using the facets to the left of your search results, like Date and Location.
• Select “Gallery” or “Grid” to change how you view the results. You can:
• increase the number of items you see at one time at the bottom of the page;
• change how the results are organized so they can be seen chronologically or in alphabetical order.
• Find an item that is of interest? On the item page look to the right and find the subject headings listed. You can click on those to see what other items are listed under that same subject heading.
• Explore related items at the bottom of the page.
• Additional search tips can be found on the Library’s Search Help page .

Explore online resources

Congress.gov – Explore current and historic information on bills, laws and the legislative branch of the government.

Chronicling America – Access historic newspapers from all fifty states and the District of Columbia for accounts of historic and everyday events as reported at the time they happened.

Check with the experts

Teaching with the Library blog – Short (500 words or less) posts featuring primary sources and teaching ideas.

Other Library blogs offer tips on finding Library resources, suggestions for other search terms or research ideas, and expert secondary information.

Today in History – Provides information and links to primary sources about a specific event in history.

Research Guides - In-depth guides to Library resources on a wide variety of topics.

Ask a Librarian – Send a question to a Library of Congress reference librarian. We're happy to help!

How to find resources by format

Why use primary resources.

Primary sources provide first-hand testimony or direct evidence concerning a topic under investigation. They present original thinking, report a discovery, or share new information. Use primary sources in historical research, or researching precedent or context on a particular topic. 

Primary sources are created by witnesses or recorders who experienced the events or conditions being documented. They are from the time period involved and have not been filtered through subsequent interpretation or evaluation.

Determining what is a primary source can be tricky and depends on the topic, subject, and discipline you are researching. The types of information that can be considered primary sources may vary depending on the subject or discipline. Also how you are using the material in your paper or project can effect this determination. For some papers or projects it may be important to view the original object but for others a primary source that has been scanned and is online is acceptable.

The types of information that can be considered primary sources may vary depending on the subject or discipline, and also on how you are using the material. For example:

• A magazine article reporting on recent studies linking the reduction of energy consumption to the compact fluorescent light bulb would be a secondary source.
• A research article or study proving this would be a primary source.
• However, if you were studying how compact fluorescent light bulbs are presented in the popular media, the magazine article could be considered a primary source.

Tip:  If you are unsure if a source you have found is primary, talk to your instructor, librarian, or archivist.

Definitions

Primary sources  are original records created at the time historical events occurred or well after events in the form of memoirs and oral histories. Primary sources are distinguished from secondary sources, which are produced some time after an event, and serve to analyze or interpret primary sources.

Archives and Manuscripts  consist of original unpublished, historical and contemporary material. 

Primary sources in reproduction  For some levels of research it is acceptable and appropriate to use primary sources that have been reproduced and published. A few examples include microfilmed newspaper articles, published diaries, and scanned images of original documents published in book form. 

Search strategies

When beginning your research, searching for primary sources is similar to other kinds of research:

• Brainstorm the kinds of sources you might need. News sources? Journals from the time period? Government documents? Have a date range in mind to narrow your search.
• Diaries, letters, and other personal papers are often unique items held in archives or special collections. One trick is to google the name of the person you're researching and the word "papers." If they are being held at another institution, you might find out if they've been digitized or not. 
• Brainstorm and track your keywords and subject terms. Use a thesaurus to think of more keywords or older terms you may not be familiar with, but may have been commonly used during the time period you are researching. Are the records likely to be in another language or another alphabet? Do you have expertise in this language? Knowing ahead of time might help with your search.
• Think about where records might be held. Because of historical colonialism and imperialism, some communities may not have control over their own records and materials. They may be held in another country entirely. 
• Arrange a visit to our Archives and Special Collections if your topic is related to the University or Minnesota history. 
• Browse our collections of online primary source databases . 

Searching in the Libraries collections

The catalog provides many types of primary sources: original archival materials, print materials with the original texts, printed facsimiles, and online resources that link to digital facsimiles. You can recognize such an item if the word "sources" appears in the subject. That word and certain others, especially when searched as a subject keyword, will help narrow your search results to primary sources.

Archival materials on campus are searchable in more depth via this  their description of their collections .

When searching our collection, use the  Libraries' Advanced Search  and enter your keywords, plus the subject term source to your search. For example, this is an Advanced search with two subject contains filters set as "Holocaust’ and ‘sources." The date range is set to start "1937" and end "1950."

Start with a broad search; you can always narrow it further after you begin searching. 

For some topics, try a more specific subject keyword instead, for example:

• personal narratives
• autobiography

Depending on the focus of your research, there are other formats that may serve as primary source material. Here are some examples:

• advertisements
• archaeological artifacts
• birth certificates
• census material
• congressional/parliamentary hearings and reports
• correspondence
• county records
• documentary photographs
• government documents
• inscriptions
• manuscripts
• news sources
• oral histories
• organizational minutes
• records of organizations
• voting records

Subject Guides

Look for subject guides in the arts, humanities, social sciences and professional programs. Each list varies and may include recommended primary source databases or other resources in that field. Even though a list may not include a primary source section, the librarian for that subject area can suggest resources and/or strategies for your topic. Consult the complete list of  subject librarians  if you need assistance in other areas of research.

History, Humanities, Social Sciences

Primary sources in these disciplines are original records created at the time historical events occurred or well after events in the form of memoirs and oral histories.

Examples include:  Letters, manuscripts, diaries, rare books, historical photographs, first-hand accounts, or documentary sources on a subject, person, event or issue; newspapers written at the time of an event, song, or film from time period, historical maps, government reports or data, and more.

Primary Sources in Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences

South Asia Primary Sources

Health Sciences, Sciences, Engineering

Primary sources in the sciences are original materials or information on which other research is based. Primary sources are also sets of data, such as health statistics, which have been tabulated, but not interpreted.

Examples include:  Journal articles of original research (written by person who did the research), patents, conference papers, dissertations, technical reports, or something personal like Einstein’s diary).

Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Sources in the Health Sciences

Patent Research Guide

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University Library

Types of Sources and Where to Find Them: Primary Sources

Historians and other scholars classify sources as primary or secondary . This distinction is important because it will affect how you understand these sources. In this first video of a 2-part tutorial, we will discuss primary sources.

Primary sources are most often produced around the time of the events you are studying. They reflect what their creator observed or believed about the event. These sources serve as the raw material that you’ll analyze and synthesize in order to answer your research question, and they will form key pieces of evidence in your paper’s argument. Secondary sources, in contrast, provide an interpretation of the past based on primary sources.

This newspaper article is an example of a primary source. It describes a visit Nixon made to the Soviet Union in 1959. It was written the day after by a journalist who witnessed the event, and it reflects what the journalist and his editors thought their readers would care about at the time. Another example is this pamphlet, which compiles legal testimony from a witch trial. It was published in 1646, the same year as the trial it documents. But, given the nature of the topic, you would probably want to research the pamphlet’s author, John Davenport, to determine the reliability of the transcription or what might have motivated him to publish it.

However, you should be aware that there’s nothing inherent in a source that makes it primary or secondary. Instead, its category depends on how you treat it, which in turn depends on your research question. For example, Black Reconstruction in America , written in 1935 by W.E.B. Du Bois, could be used as a secondary source for research about 19th-century America, since Du Bois draws on a range of government reports, biographies, and existing historical narratives in order to make a claim about the past. However, it could also be used as a primary source for research about Du Bois’s life or black intellectual culture during the 1930s.

One of the main challenges of dealing with primary sources is locating them. Many historical documents have never been published, and they may only be available in archives. For example, here is a page from the expense book of a student enrolled in the University of Illinois in 1930. It is a unique document located in the Student Life and Culture Archive here on campus, and it is only accessible to those who can come to the archive in person. This, on the other hand, is a published primary source: a diary, written in 1912, and first published several decades later. Our copy is in the Main Stacks.

Some of these materials, like letters, were not published at the time of creation, but have been subsequently published in a book, or digitized and made available online. For some topics, historical documents might be difficult to find because they have been lost or were never created in the first place. In other cases, the primary sources might exist, but not in English. Therefore, when you begin to formulate a topic, you will want to think about what kinds of evidence will be available to you.

When thinking about how to find or make sense of primary sources, you should ask yourself three questions:

• When and where was it created?
• Who created it?
• For what purpose or audience was it produced?

Depending on the topic and time period that you are studying, you’ll have to look for different kinds of primary sources. For example, if you are interested in the issue of birth control in 20 th century America, you can expect to find many primary sources, including:

• court cases
• legislative documents
• newspaper articles
• and letters

If you are interested in a topic from a more distant historical time period, such as the status of Jews during the Renaissance, you may have to look harder, but you can still find documents such as:

• and pamphlets

If you’re interested in first-person accounts, you’ll want to take a look at sources like:

• autobiographies
• oral histories
• literary works
• or polemical writings

You’ll have to determine if the source is a reliable account, or created with the intention of imposing a particular understanding of an event or situation. Were they created at the time of the events they recount, or were they written many years later? Some sources might make this point of view obvious, whereas others might pretend to be authoritative.

In other cases, you’ll want to think about what kinds of organizations might have created records related to your topic. You might be able to find:

• government reports
• court records
• transactions of an association
• annual reports and financial records
• or reports of non-governmental organizations.

Again, you’ll want to determine the circumstances of the document’s creation. Was it an internal document, created to gather information, or was it intended to persuade others inside or outside the group to take a certain course of action?

Visual material can also provide a powerful window onto the time period you are studying. For instance, maps not only reveal contemporary political boundaries, but also how people thought of them. Other visual sources include:

• photographs
• advertisements
• illustrations
• travel narratives
• and motion pictures

Keep in mind that primary sources can have multiple meanings. For example, this 1854 map provides evidence about the 1854 London cholera outbreak, but it also reflects a new understanding of how disease spreads and a concern with illness as a social problem.

You can find published primary sources by using the online catalog, or by searching in a digital collection of historical documents, such as the Gerritsen Collection of Women’s History, Chronicling America, and Empire Online. The History Library maintains a list of these collections on its website.

Remember, though, that these databases will not explicitly categorize the items they list as primary and secondary, and may even contain documents that you might want to use as a secondary source, so you’ll have to use your own judgment. For example, you might be interested in this Dictionary of Women’s Employment for the information it contains about wages, or for the attitudes that it conveys about what kinds of jobs are appropriate for women.

You can also find primary sources by consulting published bibliographies, and by looking at the secondary literature on your topic to see what sources other scholars have used in their research.

Primary Sources: What They Are and Where to Find Them

What is a primary source.

• Finding Primary Sources in the UWRF Library

A primary source is an original object or document created during the time under study.   Primary sources vary by discipline and can include historical and legal documents, diaries, letters, family records, speeches, interviews, autobiographies, film, government documents, eye witness accounts, results of an experiment, statistical data, pieces of creative writing, and art objects. In the natural and social sciences, the results of an experiment or study are typically found in scholarly articles or papers delivered at conferences, so those articles and papers that present the original results are considered primary sources.  

A secondary source is something written about a primary source. Secondary sources include comments on, interpretations of, or discussions about the original material. You can think of secondary sources as second-hand information. If I tell you something, I am the primary source. If you tell someone else what I told you, you are the secondard source. Secondary source materials can be articles in newspapers or popular magazines, book or movie reviews, or articles found in scholarly journals that evaluate or criticize someone else's original research.

Research versus Review

Scientific and other peer reviewed journals are excellent sources for primary research sources. However, not every article in those journals will be an article with original research. Some will include book reviews and other materials that are more obviously secondary sources . More difficult to differentiate from original research articles are review articles . Both types of articles will end with a list of References (or Works Cited). Review articles are often as lengthy or even longer that original research articles. What the authors of review articles are doing is analysing and evaluating current research or investigations related to a specific topic, field, or problem. They are not primary sources since they review previously published material. They can be helpful for identifying potentially good primary sources, but they aren't primary themselves. Primary research articles can be identified by a commonly used format. If an article contains the following elements, you can count on it being a primary research article. Look for sections entitled Methods (sometimes with variations, such as Materials and Methods), Results (usually followed with charts and statistical tables), and Discussion . You can also read the abstract to get a good sense of the kind of article that is being presented. If it is a review article instead of a research article, the abstract should make that clear. If there is no abstract at all, that in itself may be a sign that it is not a primary resource. Short research articles, such as those found in Science and similar scientific publications that mix news, editorials, and forums with research reports, may not include any of those elements. In those cases look at the words the authors use, phrases such as "we tested," "we used," and "in our study, we measured" will tell you that the article is reporting on original research.

Primary or Secondary: You Decide

The distinction between types of sources can get tricky, because a secondary source may also be a primary source. DoVeanna Fulton's book on slave narratives, for example, can be looked at as both a secondary and a primary source. The distinction may depend on how you are using the source and the nature of your research. If you are researching slave narratives, the book would be a secondary source because Fulton is commenting on the narratives. If your assignment is to write a book review of Speaking Power , the book becomes a primary source, because you are commenting, evaluating, and discussing DoVeanna Fulton's ideas.

You can't always determine if something is primary or secondary just because of the source it is found in. Articles in newspapers and magazines are usually considered secondary sources. However, if a story in a newspaper about the Iraq war is an eyewitness account, that would be a primary source. If the reporter, however, includes additional materials he or she has gathered through interviews or other investigations, the article would be a secondary source. An interview in the Rolling Stone with Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes would be a primary source, but a review of the latest Black Crowes album would be a secondary source. In contrast, scholarly journals include research articles with primary materials, but they also have review articles that are not, or in some disciplines include articles where scholars are looking at primary source materials and coming to new conclusions.

For your thinking and not just to confuse you even further, some experts include tertiary sources as an additional distinction to make. These are sources that compile or, especially, digest other sources. Some reference materials and textbooks are considered tertiary sources when their chief purpose is to list or briefly summarize or, from an even further removed distance, repackage ideas. This is the reason that you may be advised not to include an encyclopedia article in a final bibliography.

The above material was adapted from the excellent explanation written by John Henderson found on Ithaca College's library website http://www.ithacalibrary.com/sp/subjects/primary and is used with permission.

• Next: Finding Primary Sources in the UWRF Library >>
• Last Updated: Nov 8, 2023 3:51 PM
• URL: https://libguides.uwrf.edu/primarysources

Explore millions of high-quality primary sources and images from around the world, including artworks, maps, photographs, and more.

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• Finding and Using Primary Sources
• Getting Started

Finding and Using Primary Sources: Getting Started

• Online Collections
• Books & Ebooks
• Magazines & Journals
• Data & Stats
• Citing Primary Sources

Ask a Librarian

Need Help?   Ask a Librarian for help finding primary sources in the library. 

Librarians are available from 9am to 12am most days to help you with your research. You can reach us in person, via chat, phone, or email.

Primary sources are those created contemporaneously to whatever period a researcher is studying. In contrast to secondary sources, they don't provide any analysis on a given topic after the fact; instead, they reflect on information or events as they unfolded (for example, a newspaper article, from the time of a particular historical event, discussing the historical event as it happened). Primary sources are especially useful for researchers because they reveal how certain topics and ideas were understood during a specific time and place. The particular primary sources you might use in your research, as well as how you find them, can vary a lot based on your field of study. This guide aims to provide helpful information on where to go about searching for primary sources, both at Duke and beyond.

Examples of Primary Sources (explore the other tabs for more info):

• Photographs
• Government records
• Pamphlets and other ephemeral material
• Memoirs and autobiographies

Location-Specific Resources

This guide is meant to cover primary sources in a generalized way. Duke Libraries also has a collection of guides that go over primary sources based on location. Check these out if you're looking for primary sources related to a particular history or place! Keep in mind, too, that many of our subject guides also provide some information about accessing primary sources related to specific subjects.

Location-Specific Primary Source Guides at Duke:

• Primary Sources - Africa
• Primary Sources - Asia
• Primary Sources - Global British
• Primary Sources - Latin America/Caribbean
• Primary Sources - Middle East
• Primary Sources - North America
• Primary Sources - Western Europe

Created in 2021 by Anna Twiddy and Kaylee Alexander.

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• Last Updated: Mar 4, 2024 2:18 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.duke.edu/primarysources

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Library research quickstart guide : How to find primary sources

• How to find primary sources
• << Previous: Tips for finding ONLINE books, articles, and primary sources
• Next: How to evaluate your sources >>
• Videos -- Introduction to library research
• Connecting from off-campus
• Configuring Google Scholar for full access
• Tips for finding ONLINE books, articles, and primary sources
• How to evaluate your sources
• Leapfrogging: following the citation trail
• Last Updated: Jan 24, 2024 12:43 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.stanford.edu/LibraryQuickstartGuide

The Sheridan Libraries

• Primary Sources
• Sheridan Libraries
• Search tips for identifying primary sources
• Formats and Types
• Tools for finding Primary Sources
• Use Primary Sources
• Primary Source Databases
• Cite Primary Sources

Practical Considerations

Some types of primary sources can be readily found and used anywhere, for example printed primary sources like popular 19th century novels (most libraries have books by Mark Twain, Nathaniel Hawthorn, and Jane Austen.)

Digital primary sources are also easy to access, whether they are freely available like those at the Library of Congress , or in subscription databases of digital primary sources purchased by JHU.

Other primary sources are rare, fragile, and not available digitally. We have many of these types of sources in our Special Collections and Archives . However, others may not be available at JHU or locally.

If you are just starting your research process, take some time to brainstorm what types of primary sources you will need to answer your research question. Then make sure you will be able to access the sources you need.

Identifying Keywords

Keywords are the central concepts or ideas that you are searching for--they could be people (Calico Jack, pirates), places (the south sea, Bermuda), or things (the jolly roger, astrolabes). But, they may also be concepts or ideas (egalitarianism, mercantilism).

One of the things to be aware of in keyword searching for primary sources is that your keywords need to match those in the primary sources in order to find the best results. Sometimes that may be a matter of finding the comparable term for the period you are interested in. Almost always, it means you should consider a list of synonyms for your keywords (pirate, buccaneer, sea rover, privateer). But, with primary sources, especially those from the 18th century or earlier, it also means contending with variation in spelling.

A researcher interested in hurricanes in the early Carribbean would need to not only use "hurricane" as a keyword but consider synonyms like whirlwind, tempest, storm, and squall. Furthermore, they would need to search for hurricane, huracan, furcanes, hurry-cano, or hurricano. Likewise, for whirlwind, they might need to search for whirlewind.

Accounting for variation in words and spelling from the start will help you find the sources you need. The tips below can help facilitate the process once you have identified your keywords and search terms.

Tips for Multiple Search Terms

Connect search terms with AND to narrow a search by requiring both search terms.

Connect search terms with OR to broaden a search by accepting results with either term.

Limit a search by using NOT to exclude results that contain the second term.

Phrase Searching

Utilizing a phrase search assures that your results prioritize or are limited to sources that use the two or more terms you search together as a phrase the way you intend, rather than finding results that have each of the words, but not necessarily together.

To search a phrase, place "quotation marks" around your terms.

Example: "jolly roger" will get you results about pirate flags but jolly roger without quotations will deliver you sources like the book Uncle Wiggly's Adventures, which happens to have the name Roger, and the term jolly in completely distinct parts of the book (which has nothing to do with pirate flags).

Wildcard Searching

Inserting a  wildcard  in your search helps to search for variations, and can be especially helpful when searching for primary sources that use a long s or to account for non-standardized spelling.

To use a  wildcard , insert at question mark (?) in place of the letter or character you think could vary.

Example: p?rate will find both pirate and pyrate

Truncation Searching

Truncating your keyword allows you to search multiple variations of a word at once based on a shared stem or root.

To use truncation, insert at asterisk (*) at the end of your root or stem.

Example: buccaneer* will return results for buccaneer, buccaneers, and buccaneering

Example: mutin* will give results for mutinous, mutiny, mutinies, mutineer, mutinying, and mutinied

Using Subject Headings

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• Last Updated: Nov 29, 2023 1:17 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.jhu.edu/primary-sources-history

Educator Resources

Finding Primary Sources for Teachers and Students

Finding primary sources.

Primary Sources from DocsTeach Thousands of online primary source documents from the National Archives to bring the past to life as classroom teaching tools.

National Archives Catalog Find online primary source materials for classroom & student projects from the National Archive's online catalog (OPA).

Beginning Research Activities Student activities designed to help you navigate the National Archives resources and web site.

Online Exhibits Exhibits featuring online documents, photos and primary sources from the National Archives

Our Documents 100 Milestone Documents of American History

Getting Started with Research How to start researching records at the National Archives. Finding your topic, identifying records, planning a visit, and more.

Online Research Tools & Aids Introduction to catalogs, databases, and other online resources.

Citing Primary Sources Citing Records in the National Archives of the United States

Primary Sources Guide

Understanding research sources.

• African American Studies
• Latin American & Latina/o Studies
• Native American & Indigenous Studies
• Evaluating Primary Sources
• Citing Primary Sources

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• What are Primary Sources?
• What are Secondary Sources?
• What are Tertiary Sources?

A primary source is a first-hand account from a person or organization who:

• Created an original work
• Participated in new scientific discoveries
• Witnessed an event

Some examples of primary sources include:

• Art and artifacts
• Autobiographies, diaries, and memoirs
• Interviews and oral histories
• Novels and poetry
• Photographs
• Data and surveys

Why are primary sources useful?  Primary sources are useful to:

• Observe and analyze an event from an eyewitness perspective
• Develop your own opinions and explanations
• Learn if you agree or disagree with the authors of secondary/tertiary sources and their conclusions

A secondary source has the following qualities:

• It comments on or analyzes something
• It often summarizes or interprets primary sources
• It's usually written by someone who was not directly involved or an eyewitness

Some examples of secondary sources include:

• Analysis or criticism, such as literary criticism
• Biographies
• Essays and reviews

Why are secondary sources useful? Secondary sources are useful because they:

• Help you consider diverse viewpoints about a topic
• Organize and outline information in an approachable way
• Offer information and analysis from experts

Remember, secondary sources are often based on studying and analyzing primary sources . Another way to think about it? Your research paper is a secondary source because you're analyzing and interpreting other sources.

A tertiary source has the following qualities:

• It lists and compiles information without additional analysis
• It repackages important ideas and information from other primary and secondary sources

Some examples of tertiary sources include:

• Directories of local, state, and national organizations
• Encyclopedias and dictionaries
• Guidebooks and handbooks

Why are tertiary sources useful? Tertiary sources are useful because they help you:

• Gather background information about a topic or concept
• Find a variety of information in one source
• Provide information in a concise and compact way

Examples of Primary Sources vs. Other Sources

• Communications

One area of study at Central Piedmont where primary sources are often used is History . Here are some examples:

• Primary Source = Autobiography :  Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave by Frederick Douglass
• Secondary Source = Biography :  Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight

Another area of study at Central Piedmont where primary sources often come into play is English . Here are some examples:

• Primary Source = Novel :  Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
• Secondary Source = Literary Criticism :  Gabriel García Márquez in Retrospect: A Collection Book , edited by Gene H. Bell-Villada

One other area of study at Central Piedmont where primary sources often come into play is Communications . Here are some examples:

• Primary Sources = Memoir :  Deaf Utopia: A Memoir--And a Love Letter to a Way of Life  by Nyle DiMarco
• Secondary Sources = Journal Article : "Curriculum and Instruction for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students: Evidence from the Past—Considerations for the Future" (2023) by Maria C. Hartman, Elaine R. Smolen, and Brynne Powell
• Tertiary Sources = Reference Book :  American Sign Language: A Step-by-Step Guide to Signing by Suzie Chafin

Credit : Austin Community College's Primary Sources guide served as the inspiration and model for this LibGuide.

Additional Help

• Next: Finding Primary Sources >>
• Last Updated: Jun 26, 2024 8:48 AM
• URL: https://researchguides.cpcc.edu/primary-sources

University Library

Library Research for Undergraduate History Students: An Introduction

• Starting Points
• Secondary Sources

What are Primary Sources?

Published vs unpublished primary sources, how do i find primary sources, shelf browsing, struggling, learn more about primary sources.

• Constructing Your Paper
• Video Tutorials
• Return to HPNL Website
• Ask a Librarian

Primary sources are produced at the time of the event or phenomenon you are investigating, and they purport to document it. They reflect what someone observed or believed about an event at the time it occurred or soon afterwards. These sources provide raw material that you will analyze and interpret. Primary sources can be published or unpublished. 

There are different types of primary sources for different historical periods. For example, church documents and saints' lives serve as primary sources for the study of medieval history, while newspapers, government reports, and photographs serve as primary sources for the modern period. Moreover, what constitutes a primary source depends in part on how you have formulated your research topic. An article in an academic journal from 1984 could be a secondary source because it is part of an ongoing scholarly analysis of your topic, or it could be primary source because it provides evidence of attitudes and opinions held by people in 1984. In other words, there is no intrinsic or distinguishing feature of a text that makes it a primary, rather than a secondary, source. In fact, many sources, whether visual or textual, can serve as either primary or secondary sources. The key is how you use the material. In order to determine whether a source might be primary or secondary for your purposes, you must consider it in relation to your particular topic.

Unpublished primary sources are original documents and artifacts of all kinds that were created by individuals but not published (that is, made public --issued in a format that could be widely distributed) during the period you are studying. In the past, only archives and museums preserved these kinds of primary source materials, and researchers had to travel all over the world to use them. With the invention of microfilming, and later, digitization, it became possible to create facsimiles of large collections of primary source materials. Large research libraries like the UIUC Library have extensive collections of microfilm and digital facsimiles of unpublished primary sources. Universities also have rare books libraries and university archives, which hold original unpublished primary source materials.

In general, published primary source material covers a wide range of publications, including first-person accounts, memoirs, diaries, letters, newspapers, statistical reports, government documents, court records, reports of associations, organizations and institutions, treatises and polemical writings, chronicles, saints' lives, charters, legal codes, maps, graphic material (e.g. photographs, posters, advertising images, paintings, prints, and illustrations), literary works and motion pictures. Some of these materials were not published at the time of their creation (e.g. letters), but have subsequently been published in a book. For example, The Selected Papers of Margaret Sanger  is a selection from birth control activist Margaret Sanger's letters and other unpublished papers, presented in chronological order, which contextual information provided by expert editors.

Here's an overview:

There are many ways to find digitized primary sources, both published and unpublished, starting with our Digital Collections guide:

• Digital Collections Guide by History, Philosophy and Newspaper Library Last Updated Aug 23, 2024 1269 views this year

You can find published primary sources by using library catalogs, research guides, and published bibliographies. You can also look at secondary literature on your topic to ascertain what sources other scholars have used in their research. Our Guide to Primary Source Reprints is another good place to look for published primary sources:

• Primary Source Reprints by History, Philosophy and Newspaper Library Last Updated Jan 31, 2024 550 views this year

To find published primary sources in library catalogs, try these strategies:

-Search by date of publication to find sources that were published during the time period you're researching --you can also use this strategy in full-text digital collections such as ProQuest Historical Newspapers

-Use the library catalog advanced search option and include one or more of these Library of Congress Subject Heading form subdivisions as subject search terms:

• Correspondence
• Personal narratives
• Early works to 1800
• Manuscripts

You can find unpublished primary sources in the University of Illinois Library in the library catalog and in the University Archives Holdings Database . You can find materials held by other archives and museums using ArchiveGrid (an inventory of archival finding aids), or using the "archival material" format in WorldCat . Microfilm facsimiles of primary source materials are also included in WorldCat and other library catalogs:

• University of Illinois Library Catalog Use the Library Catalog to identify books, journals (but not journal articles), microform collections, and digital collections owned by the University of Illinois. The Library Catalog is the primary tool for exploring the collections of the University of Illinois Library, the second largest academic library collection in the United States. In the Library Catalog you can search for books by subject, and you identify the location within the Library of a particular book or journal. Books and journals are organized in the library by subject. Each item is assigned one or more subject headings and a unique call number. Subject headings are standardized terms from the Library of Congress. The call number is based on the Dewey Decimal Classification or Library of Congress Classification . Boolean operators must be capitalized if used: AND, OR, NOT. Interface automatically truncates some search terms unless Boolean operators are used within the same query line. You can also browse catalog records by call number, creating a "virtual shelf browsing" experience.
• University of Illinois Archives Holdings Database Finding aids for archival collections held by the University Archives, and the Student Life and Culture Archive
• HathiTrust Over 17 million books, periodicals, and government documents digitized by Google, the Internet Archive, Microsoft, and research libraries. About 2,500,000 of these works can be read online (because they are public domain works, and therefore freely accessible).
• WorldCat This link opens in a new window WorldCat is a worldwide union catalog created and maintained collectively by more than 9,000 member institutions. With millions of online records built from the bibliographic and ownership information of contributing libraries, it is the largest and most comprehensive database of its kind. You can also use WorldCat on the FirstSearch platform .
• ArchiveGrid This link opens in a new window Destination for searching through historical documents, personal papers, and family histories held in archives around the world. Thousands of libraries, museums, and archives have contributed nearly a million collection descriptions to ArchiveGrid. Researchers searching ArchiveGrid can learn about the many items in each of these collections, contact archives to arrange a visit to examine materials, and order copies.

In order to browse the shelves, you need to know the “classification number” for your topic. Once a new book is assigned subject headings, it is then “classified” according to the Dewey Decimal Classification. In Dewey, the first three numbers indicate the main subject, and additional numbers are added after a decimal point to narrow the subject. Books and journals on historical topics are usually classified in the 900s, although much of social history gets classified in the 300s, and film is classified in the 700s.

Once you have identified a few books on your topic by doing a subject search in the online catalog, you can browse the shelf under the same general number(s) to find related works. For example, if you know that the book Slaves on Screen, by Natalie Z. Davis, has the call number 791.43655 D29s, you could go to the Main Stacks to browse the shelves under the same Dewey number to find related material.

Because so much of the Library collection is now stored in a high density, off-site storage facility, it's no longer possible to browse the collection as completely as it once was. You can, however, do "virtual shelf browsing" using the Library Catalog :

• University of Illinois Library Catalog: Browse Search Use this interface to browse the catalog by author, subject heading, or call number. Choose the type of browse you want to conduct using the drop down menu at the left of the search box.

If you're having trouble finding primary sources for a topic you've already started researching, go back to your secondary literature: what sources have other scholars consulted?  These should be cited in the footnotes or endnotes and/or described in an essay in the back of the book.

If you haven't decided on your topic yet, browsing the primary source collections described in the Digital Collections Guide can be a good way to find inspiration. Find a source that interests you, whether it's something you're surprised by, something that doesn't make sense, or just something you'd like to know more about.

• Guide to Digital Collections (History, Philosophy, and Newspaper Library) Guide to digitized primary source collections, for the most part collections that are owned or licensed by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library. Organized by broad discipline (History, Philosophy, Religious Studies, and African American Studies). History is subdivided by region and time period.

If you have time, one of the best guides to conducting serious library research is the Oxford Guide to Library Research :

• The Oxford Guide to Library Research This guide has long been the standard introduction to library research methods, since its first edition in 1993 ( Library Research Models ).

Don't forget that you can Ask a Librarian for assistance at any stage of your research, or, for more in depth assistance, Schedule a Research Consultation with a subject specialist librarian:

• Schedule a Research Consultation Browse from the list of the Library's subject specialist librarians, and schedule an appointment with the subject librarian in your field.

Primary Source Village . Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois, 2006.

Williams, Robert C. "Sources and Evidence." The Historian's Toolbox: A Student's Guide to the Theory and Craft of History . Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2003.

Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams. "From Problems to Sources." The Craft of Research . 3d ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.

• Research Methods: Primary Sources Guides, tutorials, case studies, and videos that teach students how to find and use primary sources for historical research.
• << Previous: Secondary Sources
• Next: Constructing Your Paper >>
• Last Updated: Jun 20, 2024 1:32 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.illinois.edu/historicalresearch

• Harvard Library
• Research Guides
• Faculty of Arts & Sciences Libraries

Library Research Guide for History

• Finding Primary Sources Online
• Newsletter February 2024
• Exploring Your Topic
• HOLLIS (and other) Catalogs
• Document Collections/Microfilm
• Outline of Primary Sources for History

Finding Primary Sources Online: Contents

General Digital Libraries

Is This Book Available Open Access?

Finding primary sources on the open web.

Finding the Right Subscription Database

Museum Objects

Local online sources, digitized harvard collections, digital libraries/collections by region or language.

• Finding Online Sources: Detailed Instructions
• Religious Periodicals
• Personal Writings/Speeches
• Oral History and Interviews
• News Sources
• Archives and Manuscripts
• Government Archives (U.S.)
• U.S. Government Documents
• Foreign Government & International Organization Documents
• French Legislative Debates/Documents
• State and City Documents
• Historical Statistics/Data
• GIS Mapping
• Public Opinion
• City Directories
• Policy Literature, Working Papers, Think Tank Reports (Grey Literature)
• Technical Reports (Grey Literature)
• Country Information
• Corporate Annual Reports
• US Elections
• Travel Writing/Guidebooks
• Missionary Records
• Reference Sources
• Harvard Museums
• Boston-Area Repositories
• Citing Sources & Organizing Research
• Newsletter January 2011
• Newsletter June 2012
• Newsletter August 2012
• Newsletter December 2012
• Newsletter June 2013
• Newsletter August 2013
• Newsletter January 2014
• Newsletter June 2014
• Newsletter August 2014
• Newsletter January 2015
• Newsletter June 2015
• Newsletter August 2015
• Newsletter January 2016
• Newsletter June 2016
• Newsletter August 2016
• Newsletter January 2017
• Newsletter June 2017
• Newsletter August 2017
• Newsletter January 2018
• Newsletter June 2018
• Newsletter August 2018
• Newsletter August 2019
• Newsletter December 2019
• Newsletter March 2021
• Newsletter October 2021
• Newsletter June 2019
• Newsletter May 2022
• Newsletter February2023
• Newsletter October 2023
• Exploring Special Collections at Harvard

This page lists resources for digitized historical primary sources. Resources containing books, archives/manuscripts and mixed collections are included. Databases for particular primary source types, newspapers, periodicals, personal writings, images, films, etc., are listed on their own pages in this guide. A list of primary sources types with links is given at Outline of Primary Sources for History . We have a list of digital collections, both Harvard subscription databases and free Web collections at Online Primary Source Collections for History . It is still in an early stage of development.

General resources are listed first, then the same categories of resources, where needed, are listed by region or language.

• General Full Text Searchable Digital Libraries  offer full text searches of books and periodicals.  Sometimes include archival/manuscript material, films, etc.
• Finding Primary Sources on the Open Web .  There is no one method for finding all digitized material.  Several methods are listed here - mainly item and collection-level searches
• Finding the Right Subscription Database . Subcollections, individual items (books, manuscripts, images), and full text in the hundreds of subscription (commercial) databases are generally not findable on open web searches, so it is difficult to know which databases may be useful. Methods of solving this problem are given here.

 HathiTrust Digital Library, Internet Archive, Google Book Search offer books and periodicals digitized from numerous libraries.  Each of these three digital libraries allows searching full text over their entire collections.

HathiTrust Digital Library  is a huge collection of digitized books and periodicals. Each full text item is linked to a standard library catalog record, thus providing good metadata and subject terms. Most items pre-1925 will be full text viewable.  After 1925, a much smaller number will be full text viewable.  You can search within non-full text viewable works and obtain the pages numbers where your search terms occur.   Most US, and some state, government documents will be full text viewable.

There is also a separate full text search for US government documents .

Advanced Full Text Search

In the first (Full Text) Advanced Full Text Search field, you can put terms for a full text search.  Phrases and proper names work best (exact phrase).  If you search two or more separate keywords, when you search within particular volumes, those pages containing all the keywords will sort first.

In the second search field, you can limit your full text search by:

• Title, searching the contents of a particular work, including periodical titles
• Author, searching the works of a particular author, including names of organizations and government entities.
• Subject, searching the Subject terms (same Subject terms as those used in HOLLIS) for a particular topic

Internet Archive  .

• Full text for a variety of digitized print materials and archived web pages (Wayback Machine), as well as manuscripts (a few), digitized microfilm, films, audio files, TV News, and more.  Many recent books are full text viewable if you set up a free account. You can use a Google password.
• Unlike Google and Hathitrust, IA usually offers multiple download options including e-readers.

Full Text Search Options. You can search  Internet Archive  for texts bearing a specified Subject term, Title, or Author (Creator). Shift from Search metadata to Search text contents.

• subject:Calcutta AND cholera [Use lower case for subject, title, creator]
• For a periodical: title:American Machinist AND "Spring breakage has been eliminated"
• creator:Parker, T. Jeffery AND "oosperm or unicellular embryo" [note: The correct form of the name must be used. Find this by trying out the name in Advanced Search: Creator. When you find the right name, shift from Search metadata to Search text contents ]

Internet Archive is organized into nested collections. Each collection can be searched full text. Within the whole Internet Archive collection, there are collections such as the Medical Heritage Library, the Biodiversity Heritage Library,  Periodicals, Magazine_Rack and numerous others. Within Periodicals, for example, there are collections for individual titles. Not all periodicals are included in collections, especially if there are less than 50 issues. Sometimes issues of a periodical occur outside of it’s main collection. In either case, you can full text search within a title using: title:"nautical research journal" AND China, selecting Search text contents. When specifying a collection, use small letters and eliminate spaces: collection:(medicalheritagelibrary)

Much of the Internet Archive content is organized into full text searchable Collections. Thus, if you search “Civil rights” you retrieve 104,660 items which are partially organized into 178 collections (see under Media Type in the left hand column). Some of the collections are topical (Kent State Shootings) or they include issues of a particular periodical or podcast. Collections are often nested. For example:

• Medical Officer of Health reports  (British and Colonial) within  The Medical Heritage Library
• Army Times 1940-2015  within  Periodicals

By no means are all periodical issues and other items included in collections. In these cases periodical titles can be full text searched using the title:American Machinist AND "Spring breakage has been eliminated" method.

Browse text collections    ---   Browse movie collections     Adjust Media Type to Collections. You can then limit by Subject.  There are 243 collections of commercials in Movies.

Periodicals in Internet Archive

Many are available full text in the  Internet Archive ,  including  numerous trade periodicals . Search: collection:(Periodicals) AND Railroads. Select Media Type: Collections

In Advanced search:

Any field: Your topic Collection is: Periodicals

You can search full text within a particular volume, over the whole Internet Archive, or within a particular Collection. 

• Periodicals https://archive.org/details/periodicals
• Serials in Microfilm https://archive.org/details/sim_microfilm

Omit colons (:) and other punctuation in titles

These searches yield individual issues and whole runs.  Isolate whole runs by choosing Collections under Media Type.

• Medical Heritage Library which is also separately searchable  and the  Biodiversity Heritage Library which is separately searchable
• Much South Asian material
• 28 million  documents and texts , including 4.6 million digitized books
• 6 million  television news programs  and  other videos
• 14 million audio items ( Audio Archive ), including  live concerts ,  vinyl recordings ,  audiobooks ,  radio shows , and  podcasts
• 3.5 million  images
• 580,000  games  and other software titles
• 475 billion web pages stored in the  Wayback Machine

In Advanced search you can search say Description: "South Asia", and at the top left of the results page choose Media type: Collection.  When on a Collection page, you can search within by metadata or full text

The Internet Archive is so large and various that it can be difficult to navigate.  These partial lists of contents are useful:

• Lists of Internet Archive's collections
• Lists of Internet Archive's collections: External Collections
• Additional Collections

Google Book Search offers full text of:

• Largely, pre-1924 books and periodicals scanned from libraries,
• Post-1924 books and periodicals digitized in libraries. Full text searchable and snippet views displayed
• "Previews" of books submitted by publishers. Some pages are hidden.  Some, but not all, of the hidden pages are searchable.

Internet History Sourcebooks Project

World Digital Library  offers primary source materials.

The Making of the Modern World offers full text searching of works on economics and business published from 1450-1914 from the Kress Collection of Business and Economics at the Baker Library, Harvard Business School and the Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature at the University of London Library. Includes material on commerce, finance, social conditions, politics, public health, trade and transport. A great deal of more recently acquired material in the Kress Collection is not included in The Making of the Modern World .

There are several sources for finding free, open access, books online.

Try HathiTrust , Internet Archive , and Google Books as described above. Harvard members should be sure to log into HathiTrust to see the Covid Temporary Access material.

Internet Archive  offers numerous in-copyright books for one-hour (renewable) loan.  Free registration needed.

WorldCat  Open Access searches for open access material. Adjust Search in database : from WorldCat to OpenAccessContent

The Online Books Page arranges electronic texts by Library of Congress call numbers and is searchable (but not full text searchable).  Includes books not in Google Books, HathiTrust, or Internet Archive. Has many other useful features.

The Open Library , although its books reside in the Internet Archive, includes many books not findable by searching the Internet Archive directly

OAPEN: Open Access Publishing in European Networks

OpenEdition - the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB). Good for non-US imprints

The Digital Public Library of America’s Open Bookshelf offers numerous open access books.

WorldCat (Public version) allows limiting a search to open access material. Use Advanced Search. Check Open Access . Select Format: Book if desired.

Check your local public library ebook collection. 

There is no one way to find digitized primary sources on the Internet. The following offers methods for finding online historical resources which are more focused than a simple Google search. Most find items within digital collections. A few search the full text.

In most one cannot effectively limit to archival/manuscript sources.  Specific searches usually work better than broad topical searches.  Searches for proper names often yield good results.

The Digital Public Library of America

The Digital Public Library of America offers textual, visual, and sound resources contributed by numerous libraries, archives, and museums.  Searches catalog records, not full text, and links to the items on the contributors' websites.  Contains many individual items, such as letters and photographs, from digital collections.

Advanced Google Searches

General Google searches may yield very many results, and it may take much sifting through the results in order to find relevant items. Using  Google Advanced Search  with specific search terms can help yield more focused results.​ Detailed instructions for searching Google Advanced Search .

Bielefeld Academic Search Engine

Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE) searches metadata and some full text, from over 2000 sources of academic open access documents.  About 60% of the documents indexed are available full text.  The metadata searched is provided by the source and tagging is often inexact.  This is a vast collection of documents and has much not available elsewhere. Use Browsing to narrow your search to subject area (e.g., Literature) or Document type (e.g., Manuscript, broadly construed).  Open Browsing and choose-Dewey Decimal (for Subject), choose major subject to see next finer level, twice.  After choosing View Records add a search term to the Subject Term or Document Type:

EROMM: European Register of Microform and Digital Masters searches its own database of records of printed and handwritten material in digital form or on microfilm from institutions worldwide and offers web search for such material.

WorldCat (the OCLC Union Catalog)

Numerous digitized collections of primary sources have records in  WorldCat .  These collections of primary sources are often swamped by ebooks on the same subject. There is no one perfect method for finding them, but the following may be tried for any topic.  Always find the proper  Subject terms for your topic  and search using those as well as any keywords.  Use Advanced search.  Detailed instructions for searching WorldCat .

OAISTER  is a subset of WorldCat for open access online academic material. It can be useful in separating digitized primary sources from the numerous ebooks in WolrldCat.  It includes digitized books and journal articles, open access publications, manuscript/archival material, photographic images, audio and visual files, data sets, and theses. It includes such a vast range of resources that digitized archival and other primary sources are lost in the abundant results if a broad topical term is used.  So it is best to use a narrow term or proper name. Thus "Act-Up" yields archival letters. It is possible to limit a search to Archival Material, but I have not found this to be useful.

To find databases available via Harvard Library by subject, go to HOLLIS Databases , scroll down to Best Databases for… and open History, or other topic.  Refine your results set on the right.  For example, for historical resources relating to women, go to Subject Category, open Show More, open Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies.  Also look for research guides on your subject among the Harvard Library research guides (Open Guides by Subject).

Because there are so many subscription databases, and because each database often includes numerous subcollections, it is difficult to know which databases may contain the sources you want.  For example, Vietnam War and American Foreign Policy, 1960-1975 (ProQuest History Vault) includes U.S. State Department Office of the Executive Secretariat Crisis Files. Part 1, the Berlin Crisis, 1957-1963.  Detailed instructions for finding these subcollections .

The Ultimate Guide to Virtual Museum Resources, E-Learning, and Online Collections (Museum Computer Network)

68 Cultural, Historical and Scientific Collections you can Explore Online (Smithsonian)

Digital Artifacts and Images for Ethnography and Archaeology (University of Michigan)

HOLLIS Search for objects in Houghton (incomplete)

Many sources digitized by local public libraries, historical societies and other institutions may be found via the Digital Public Library of America , the state/regional portals , and worldwide, via the tools listed below .  But some will not be findable. For local sources one may visit the websites of nearby institutions.

Library Directories

• LibWeb State Libraries
• LibWeb Public Libraries

Library Resources outside the U.S. (Brown University) offers overviews of library resources worldwide

Archival Directories

Historical Society Directories

• Preservation Directory.com
• Society Hill Directories lists historical societies for the US, Canada, and Australia.  Very comprehensive but not recently updated.  Google society names for their web pages.

Harvard Digital Collections  offers item level access to digitized resources.

CURIOSity Digital Collections   offers collection level access to digitized resources.

Harvard Law School Library Digital Collections

More information in  Finding Harvard's Unique or Distinctive Primary Sources: Original and Digital

International

Asia, South

Asia, Southeast

• Australia and Pacific

Czech Republic

• France/French
• Netherlands

Russia/Eastern Europe

Switzerland

United Kingdom/English Language

• Indian Ocean Islands

Latin America/Caribbean

• Middle East/North Africa

United States

Endangered Archives Programme  offers digitized material (manuscripts, rare printed books, documents, newspapers, periodicals, photographs and sound recordings) (largely pre -mid-20th century) at risk of loss or decay in countries worldwide.  When looking fo.r material on a country, use Search all endangered archives. Do not rely on Related places or Project country (on the left).

Digital Library for International Research (DLIR) offers printed and manuscript material from numerous countries worldwide. Search/browse level: Collection, Item

Lists of Digital Collections

Other Libraries' Research Guides are often contains Lists of Digital Collections

In Google Advanced Search

• all these words: library [your topic keywords]
• any of these words: guides research resources
• List of country domain names .
• Digital collections: Rechtshistorie  offers valuable lists of  national digital libraries  and of  digitized archival material by country .

BlackPast offers resources on the history of African America and people of African ancestry worldwide.

• Bodleian History Faculty Library Bookmarks
• Digital Library Directory is a searchable collection of links to digital collections.
• ECHO: Cultural Heritage Online
• PSM-Data: Geschichte is a collection of primary (P) and secondary (S) sources, many in English.
• Internet History Sourcebooks  is a collection of digital primary source documents, largely in English.
• Internet Sites with Primary Sources for History (BGSU)
• History (University of Washington)  The Primary Sources pages of the History guides list numerous primary source collections
• Guide to Online Primary Sources (UC San Diego)
• Online Books Page Archives and Indexes
• Voice of the Shuttle: History . This is the history page of a huge collection of links to humanities (broadly conceived) resources,
• World History: Primary Source Collections Online
• WWW Virtual Library

Periodicals and Newspapers

Sources for Newspapers: Guide to Newspapers and Newspaper Indexes

Union List of Digitized Jewish Historic Newspapers, Periodicals and e-Journals

African Activist Archive  (1950s-1990s) includes: pamphlets, newsletters, leaflets, buttons, posters, photographs, and audio/video recordings relating to social justice activism in supporting Africans.  Offers an international directory of non-digitized collections in repositories worldwide.

African Online Digital Library   (AODL) (Michigan State Univ) offers photographs, videos, archival documents, maps, interviews and oral histories in numerous African languages.

Aluka Digital Library  images and full text concerning:  World Heritage Sites: Africa  and  Struggles for Freedom in Southern Africa .

Digital Innovation South Africa is a digital library on the socio-political history of South Africa.

The  Liberated Africans Project  contains information on Africans liberated by international efforts, 1808-1896, to abolish the Atlantic slave trade. Includes material in the British National Archives and the Sierra Leone National Archives

OurLagosHistory.com  offers pamphlets, newspaper articles and other material on the history of Lagos.

Akkasah Photographic Archive  at NYU Abu Dhabi offers over 9000 photographs of the Middle East and North Africa 

Africana Library Catalogs & Archives   (Columbia)

African Studies Internet Resources  (Columbia) 

Primary Source Collections Online: Africa

History: Africa: Primary Sources (Univ. of Wisc.)

The AsiaPortal e-resources collection  "focuses primarily on resources for  studies of modern and contemporary Asia defined as Central Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia and Oceania. There are databases, information rich websites, e-books and journals. Most resources are freely available, but some are licensed only for use by students and staff at Nordic NIAS Council"

Japan Search digital archive search tool

Lahore University of Management Sciences Digital Library

National Digital Library of India

University of Tubingen Hermann Gundert Portal  (Indian Language Printed Material and Manuscript Collections)

University of Wisconsin Bhopal Disaster Archive

National Archives of India Digital Collections

Gokhale Library (Maharashtra, India) Printed Reports

Asiatic Society of Mumbai Digital Collections

West Bengal Public Library Network

South Asia Open Archive  extensive archive of South Asian materials including several collections in the English language

South Asian Culture: South Asian Cultural Archives and Resources for Study Resources

Short Guide to Online Archives for Students (Archives of Economic Life in South and Southeast Asia)

Harvard University Stuart Cary Welch Islamic and South Asian Photograph Collection

Cornell South East Asia Collections

Kerala Sahitya Akademi Portal (Malayalam Language)

National Archives of Singapore Digital Collections

Neliti: Indonesia's Research Repository offers 300,000 books, datasets and journal articles from Southeast Asia.

Shiju Alex Kerala History Archive  (mainly consisting of printed texts in Malayalam but also including several English language Missionary papers)

Southeast Asia Digital Library

Australia/Pacific

Trove: Online Research Portal

Pacific Digital Library

digitalpasifik.org offers digitized records of Pacific cultural heritage, held worldwide, so that people in and of Pacific can connect with their stories.

Pacific digital resources (National Library of Australia)

History: Australia, New Zealand & Oceania: Primary Sources (U. Washington)

Canadian National Digital Heritage Index

The Glenbow Archives  online collections (1860s-1990s) offers archival records relating to Calgary, southern Alberta and Western Canada.  Special focus:  indigenous history, Mounted Police, pioneer life, ranching and agriculture, the petroleum industry, politics (especially the farmers movement), labour and unions, women, the arts (especially theatre), and business.

PORT (University of London) offers descriptions of European libraries, archives, and cultural institutions.

CERL Resources (Consortium of European Research Libraries)

      Includes link to Online Manuscripts Databases and Projects

General digital libraries

Early European Books  offers full text of books published on the Continent, beginnings to 1701. Not full text searchable.  Overview of contents .

Central and Eastern European Online Library   is an online archive which provides access to full text PDF articles from 441 humanities and social science journals and re-digitized documents pertaining to Central, Eastern and South-Eastern European topics.

Virtual Library Eastern Europe  (ViFaOst)

Digital Scriptorium is an image database of medieval and renaissance manuscripts from many American institutions

TEMPO: Early Modern Pamphlets Online (1486-1853) currently includes about 47,000 pamphlets largely in Dutch, German and Latin.

Post-Reformation Digital Library (PRDL) offers digitized works Reformation and Post-Reformation/Early Modern theology and philosophy. “Late medieval and patristic works printed and referenced in the early modern era are also included”.

Tools for Finding Digitized Material

Europeana: Cultural collections of Europe  is the largest European search engine for digitized books, images, manuscripts, etc. Searches catalogs records of material contributed by numerous repositories.  Not full text searchable; links to full text.  Similar to the Digital Library of America.  Search tips .

European Navigator documents the development of a united Europe from 1945 on.

Lists of Digital Libraries and Collections

European History Primary Sources  is an index of scholarly websites providing access to primary sources. Offers collection level search.

EuroDocs: Online Sources for European History: Selected Transcriptions, Facsimiles and Translations . List of digitized documents by country

History: Europe: Primary Sources (Berkeley)

Medieval Digital Resources (Medieval Academy of America)

MICHAEL: Multilingual Inventory of Cultural Heritage in Europe  searches digital collections at the collection rather than the item level from European museums, archives and libraries.  Contains material not in Base, Europeana or EROMM

Open Access in Central and Eastern Europe  contains scientific and secondary source open access as well as historical primary sources.

Russia, Eastern Europe, and Eurasia: A Research Guide: Digital Libraries and Web Resources  (Princeton)

Selected Internet Resources for History  (Western Europe)

WessWeb  (Western European Studies Section, Association of College and Research Libraries)

Judaica Europeana: a network of museums, libraries and archives

Sources for periodicals: Finding Articles in General and Popular Periodicals (North America and Western Europe)

Kulturpool  – a portal for cultural institutions in Austria with a search interface for their digital collections

Österreichische Nationalbibliothek Digital Reading Room

Bildarchiv Austria : Historic photographs

Kramerius - Digital Library of Czech Books and Periodicals . 19th - early 20th centuries.

Czech web archive  

France/Francophone

ARTFL Project (American and French Research on the Treasury of the French Language)

Classiques Garnier Numérique  offers the Bibliographie de la littérature française, together with collections of French language primary texts and reference works, including French and francophone literature (Europe, Africa, Indian Ocean, Americas, Asia) and dictionaries and grammars from the 9th to the 20th century.

Gallica  includes the full-text for more than 100,000 volumes and 300,000 images covering the Middle Ages to the beginning of the twentieth century, with an emphasis on nineteenth-century material. Included are dictionaries and encyclopedias, journals, manuscripts, recordings and images.

French and Francophone Digital Humanities Projects  (ACRL)

History: Europe: France (Berkeley)

Paris: Bibliotheques patrimoniales . Catalog of Paris libraries with links to digitized material.

Réseau francophone numérique contains digitized historical material from French-speaking countries worldwide.

Patrimoine numérique. Catalogue des collections  numérisées

Bibliothèque Francophone Numérique .  Scroll down for Découvrez les Collections par Zones Géographiques.

Digital Humanities Database . A searchable database of French and Francophone Studies digital projects. Collection/project level search.

Clio Guide. Ein Handbuch zu digitalen Ressourcen für die Geschichtswissenschaften

Digital Libraries

Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek  offers textual and visual resources contributed by numerous libraries, archives, and museums.  Searches catalog records, not full text, and links to the items on the contributors' websites.  Contains many individual items, such as letters and photographs, from digital collections.

Deutsches Textarchiv  (1650-1900) includes texts from numerous subject areas.  Description .

Göttinger Digitalisierungs-Zentrum  hosts a large collection of mainly, but not exclusively, German books in several subject areas.

Zentrales Verzeichnis Digitalisierter Drucke  (ZVDD) is the German national portal for digitized scholarly imprints. Searches easily limited by century of publication.

Bayerische Landesbibliothek Online

Münchener Digitalisierungszentrum : Open-access collection of digitized books and other content held by the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (München).

DocumentArchiv.de: Historischen Dokumenten- und Quellensammlung zur deutschen Geschichte ab 1800 (1800- ) is a large collection of full text German primary documents.

Datenbank Schrift und Bild 1900-1960 offers German language texts and photographs

Digitised Fonds : Direct access to the Federal Archives' files available online

German Studies: Digital Collections (ACRL)

The German Studies Collaboratory

Germanistik im Netz : Catalog search

Kulturerbe Digital   offers links to search engines for German digitized material, together with a searchable and browsable list of digitization projects.

Clio-online: Fachportal für die Geschichtswissenschaften  (Largely German)

Inventory of Digital Projects in German Studies or From German-Speaking Countries .  History page (Link dead in site)

Digitale Sammlungen: Liste digitaler Sammlungen mit deutschsprachigen gemeinfreien Büchern

Academy of Athens Digital Repository  (for manuscripts) and  Digital Library  (for the Academy's works and for their rare books collection)

Anemi - Digital Library of Modern Greek Studies

Hungarian Electronic Library . 

Digital Repository of Ireland

alphabetica . "Explore the cultural heritage preserved in Italian libraries"

Internet Culturale: cataloghi e collezioni digitali delle biblioteche Italiane/Biblioteca Digitale Italiana

Storia Digitale: Contenuti Online per la Storia

The Netherlands

History: Europe: Netherlands & Low Countries (Berkeley)

Dutch National Library offers digitized works

Early Dutch Books Online (1781-1800) contains 10,000 books from the Dutch-speaking region.

Historici.nl (-2000) contains full text of numerous secondary and primary books and periodicals in Dutch history

Polona: Poland  Virtual archive

National Digital Library Polona . Middle Ages - mid-20th century.

Polish digital libraries federation offers online collections of Polish cultural and scientific institutions.

University Library in Poznan: Digital Libraries

Polish History and Culture

National Digital Library (Russia)

FEB-web - Fundamental Digital Library of Russian Literature . Middle Ages to present.

Digital Resources for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies describes online resources available via Harvard digital platforms or produced and freely accessible outside the Harvard system --Note the Open Access link on the Archives page. At Please find our list of open access resources for research in Soviet History there is a large list of resources.

Slavic, Eastern European, and Eurasian Studies: Large eBook & Digital collections (U of Chicago)

International and Area Studies Library (Univ. of Illinois)

Slavic Studies: Resources for the study of Slavic cultures, literatures, and languages.

Russia, Eastern Europe, and Eurasia: A Research Guide: Digital Libraries and Web Resources (Princeton)

History: Europe: Russia (Berkeley)

History: Europe: Other Eastern Europe (Berkeley)

Digital National Library of Serbia

Digital Library of Slovenia

Biblioteca Digital Hispánica

Biblioteca Virtual del Patrimonio Bibliográfico  offers digitized manuscripts and early printed books from Spanish libraries and archives.

Digital Memory of Instituto Cervantes

Hispana: directorio y recolector de recursos digitales  is a central index of over 4 million digital objects from 195 repositories and 326 different projects throughout Spain.

ALVIN: Platform for digital collections and digitized cultural heritage

E-Codices, Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland

e-rara.ch, the platform for digitized rare books from Swiss libraries: https://www.e-rara.ch

Searching Early English Books Online (EEBO), Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) and Early American Imprints. Since spelling in early books is variable and the long s (which looks like an f) is often used, it is important to try variant spellings and the wild card feature. ECCO offers fuzzy searching in Advanced Search

Both Early English Books Online (EEBO) and Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) contain full text of most books published 1475-1800 in Great Britain and North America and books published in English anywhere.

Early English Books Online  (EEBO) offers full text for works, including much ephemera and many periodicals, dated 1475-1700. Uses Library of Congress Subject Headings.

EEBO uses page images and OCR text. Although searchable by words and phrases, there are character recognition errors and full Boolean searching is not possible.  Early English Books Online Text Creation  Partnership  has input over 25,000 works and offers corrected text and full Boolean and other search capabilities for this subset of EEBO. Periodicals included in EEBO include corantos, newsbooks and periodicals included in the  Thomason Tracts .  Periodicals Search guide . Search Guide: Early English Books Online  (EEBO)

Eighteenth Century Collections Online  (ECCO) offers full text for English language works dated 1700-1800. Uses Library of Congress Subject Headings. Searchable by words and phrases based on the OCR text. Many 18th century American imprints are not included in ECCO because they are available in Early American Imprints (EAI) (next).

Both EEBO and ECCO are based on the  English Short Title Catalog  (ESTC) which has over 470,000 catalog (no full text) entries listing books, periodicals, newspapers and some ephemera printed before 1801. Works published in Britain, Ireland, British colonies, and the US are included, together with items printed elsewhere which contain significant text in English, Welsh, Irish or Gaelic. Books falsely claiming London publication are included. Items omitted from ECCO because they are available in EAI are represented in the ESTC. Reprints (reissues of original works) are not usually included in ECCO; they are fully represented in the ESTC.

NINES (Networked Infrastructure for Nineteenth-Century Electronic Scholarship)  (1770-1920) searches (full text search available) selected digital scholarship and primary source databases related to the British and American long 19th century. Where fee-based material is found, you will have to go through Harvard Library E-Resources; no automatic link to Harvard resources is available.

British History Online  (11th-19th cent.) offers printed primary and secondary sources for the history of the British Isles. These resources cover ecclesiastical and religious history, intellectual and cultural history, local history, urban development, economic history, parliamentary history, and administrative and legal matters.

• Archives Hub : British digital collections
• Online Resources  (Institute of Historical Research)
• Research guides: Online collections  (UK National Archives)

Culture Grid is a UK national aggregator for museum collections information.  Culture Grid contributes records to Europeana .

Connected Histories: British History Sources, 1500-1900  provides federated searching for several databases of British primary historical sources, including the primary source content of  British History Online  for 1500-1900.

Manuscripts Online  (1000 to 1500) searches a variety of online resources on manuscript and early printed culture in Britain. Includes literary manuscripts, historical documents and early printed books on websites of libraries, archives, universities and publishers. Some of the resources searched are only accessible via subscription. These resources allow free snippet results but do not provide full access. Project blog .

Connected Histories and Manuscripts Online are not integrated into the Try Harvard Library system. When you find something in a licensed/subscription database only a snippet view will display, and you will need to go to the same resource in the Harvard system (if we have it) and redo the search.

Connected Histories and Manuscripts Online (above) include both free and subscription databases.

British Library Images Online

Images of Empire  (British Empire & Commonwealth Museum)

John Johnson Collection: an archive of printed ephemera (18th-20th centuries). Collection, housed in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, documents everyday life in Britain.

Science & Society Picture Library offers over 50,000 images from the Science Museum (London), the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television and the National Railway Museum.

Visual Arts Data Service  (VADS) offers images of art, design, and posters.

Indian Ocean

Bibliothéque numérique contains a collection of digitized Mauritian rare books, journals, annual reports and government documents.

Biblioteca Digital del Patrimonio Iberoamericano Contains manuscripts, sound recordings, newspapers, maps, drawings, and other primary source materials from the national libraries of Latin American countries,

Caribbean Memory Project

Catálogo Colectivo de Impresos Latinoamericanos (1539-1850) offers a union catalog of Spanish/Portuguese letterpress material printed in Latin America, Caribbean, United States and Philippines.

Digital Library of the Caribbean Digitized archival materials originating in the Caribbean and also Latin American beyond the Caribbean.  Collections, subjects covered, and types of materials included .

Early Caribbean Digital Archive

Gale World Scholar Latin America & the Caribbean Archive includes primary source documents, academic journals and news feeds, reference sources, maps, statistics, audio and video

Manioc: Bibliothèque numérique Caraïbe, Amazonie, Plateau des Guyanes

Sabin Americana Digital Archive  (1500-1926) searchable full text of European writings on the Americas.  Description .  On Joseph Sabin .

Mexico Digital Library

Latin American & Caribbean Digital Primary Sources (Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials) A listing of freely available digitized collections of various types of primary source materials from many Latin American countries.

History: Latin America: Primary Sources  (University of Washington guide)

History: Latin America (Berkeley)

Latin American Network Information Center (LANIC) Guide to Latin American material on the Web, with links to primary sources.

Middle East

Discovering the Treasures of the National Library (Israel)

Qatar Digital Library

Shamela Free Digital Collection of Arabic Books

Waqfeya Arabic books with a focus on Islamic Religious Sciences

Duke University Libraries, Ottoman-Turkish Literature

IRCICA FARABİ digital library (Turkey)

American University in Cairo Digital Collections

University of Hamburg, Islamic Printed Page project

Hebrew Books

Digital Library of the Middle East

Arabian Gulf Digital Archive  (1820-2004)

Akkasah – Digitised Photographs from the Middle East and North Africa

American Centre for Oriental Resources Library Photo Archive

Arab Image Foundation Archive  (Non Profit archive of Middle Eastern images based in Beirut) 

ArchNet archive of Middle Eastern Built Environments , curated by the Aga Khan Documentation Centre at MIT

Das Bild des Orients . Searchable in German and English

Levantine Heritage Foundation

Middle East Photograph Archive  (University of Chicago)

Palestine Poster Project Archives

Saudi Aramco World Digital Archive  (1964- ) Aramco World magazine, published/unpublished images

Field Guide to Islamic Law Online Archives & Library Collections

Manuscripts | Digital Resources and Projects in Islamic Studies

Online Archives, Digitized Collections and Resources for Middle East, North African, and Islamic(ate) Studies (Hazine)

Orient-Institut Istanbul: Databases, portals, and virtual libraries

Access to Middle East and Islamic Resources  (AMIR). Blog with links to numerous online resources on Teaching and Learning in this region

Middle East & Islamic Studies Collection Digital Collections

The Digital Public Library of America  offers textual, visual, and sound resources contributed by numerous libraries, archives, and museums.  Searches catalog records, not full text, and links to the items on the contributors' websites.  Contains many individual items, such as letters and photographs, from digital collections.

Digital Libraries by State

These websites list hundreds of local, state, and regional resources. Each is different and some are better designed than others.  Very useful when your topic has a regional focus.

• State Archives and Collaborative (NARA)
• 250+ Killer Digital Libraries and Archives
• 71 Digital Portals to State History

American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series 1, 1760-1900

Early American Imprints, Series 1 (1639-1800)  and  Early American Imprints, Series 2 (1801-1819)  are based on the microform collection of books, pamphlets and broadsides issued in America recorded in Charles Evans' American Bibliography and Roger P. Bristol's Supplement to Charles Evans' American Bibliography, and in American Bibliography: A Preliminary Checklist for 1801-1819 by Ralph Shaw and Richard Shoemaker.

For the colonial era, overlaps with Early English Books Online and Eighteenth Century Collections Online .

Sabin Americana Digital Archive  (1500-1926) searchable full text of writings on the Americas, including many European works.  Description .  On Joseph Sabin .

NINES (Networked Infrastructure for Nineteenth-Century Electronic Scholarship)  (1770-1920) searches (full text search available) selected digital scholarship and primary source databases related to the British and American long 19th century. Where fee-based material is found, you will have to go through Harvard Library E-Resources; no automatic link to Harvard resources is available.

American Pamphlets, Series 1, 1820-1922  offers pamphlets held at the New York Historical Society.

Nineteenth Century in Print: The Making of America in Books and Periodicals

American Memory  (Library of Congress)

National Archives (US) Catalog  - Can be limited to archival materials online

Microfilm Publications and Original Records Digitized by Our Digitization Partners :  Ancestry ,  Fold3 ,  FamilySearch . National Archives.

Electronic Reading Rooms of US government departments are listed on the FOIA site . Scroll down to View the full list of agencies and choose your agency. Under Select an Office, choose the office of the Secretary or equivalent central office.

AMDOCS: Documents for the Study of American History: Online documents arranged by year

Umbra Search African American History

Discovering American Women's History Online . Offers collection level search.  Another version .

MEAD: The Magazine of Early American Datasets is an online repository of datasets on early North America. Datasets are in original format and as comma-separated-value files (.csv). Each dataset accompanied by codebook.

U.S. History: Primary Source Collections Online  (SHSU)

Primary Sources for United States History  (RUSA)

Images of America: a history of American life in images and texts  is the online version of thousands of books in the Arcadia US local history series. The histories Includes photographs from archives, historical societies and private collections. Images and text are fully searchable. Searchable by location, person, event, date, ethic group and organization. Search HOLLIS+ HOLLIS tab Advanced search as Series (exact phrase) Images of America for the print books.

American Landscape and Architectural Design, 1850-1920 contains about 2,800 lantern slide views of American buildings and landscapes.

Detroit Publishing Company, 1880-1920  (Library of Congress) photograph collection includes over 25,000 items, mostly of the eastern U.S., with subject index and keyword searchable.

History of the American West (1860-1920) offers over 30,000 photographs from the Denver Public Library.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Catalog

• << Previous: Outline of Primary Sources for History
• Next: Finding Online Sources: Detailed Instructions >>
• Last Updated: Aug 23, 2024 4:35 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.harvard.edu/history

Harvard University Digital Accessibility Policy

Primary sources: a guide for historians

Introduction, a general strategy for finding primary sources.

• Finding primary sources at Princeton
• Primary source guides
• Guides to finding sources in UK archives
• Practical advice

Librarian for History and African American Studies

Research methods

It may benefit you to look at some resources that provide an overview into the techniques of historical research.

Sage Research Methods  ("Browse" by discipline, look for History) provides a number of handbooks and case studies.

A catalog search on the subject History--Methodology will provide a number of useful books.

About primary sources

Whether you are beginning a junior paper, a senior thesis, or a doctoral dissertation in history, the first challenge is to identify a cache of primary source material that addresses the issue, person, place, or period that interests you. This guide offers some general suggestions about how to get started.

Primary sources can be either published or unpublished, and can be found in many formats, such as manuscripts, books, microfilm, photographs, video and sound recordings. Some primary sources are available in more than one format -- for example, a collection of manuscript letters may also have been published in book form, or may have been digitized and made available on the Internet. Begin by asking two basic questions:

What evidence was created?

What evidence was saved, and where.

For the most part, the evidence used by historians to answer historical questions was not created for that purpose. The evidence of the past -- official records, personal papers, videorecordings, physical remains -- was created to serve the purposes of people with very different agendas. Nonetheless, it is very useful to think about some broad categories of evidence, in part because understanding these categories can help you find the material you need.

• The records and publications of governments
• The records and publications of organizations
• The papers of individuals
• Material culture -- buildings, artifacts, and art

It is particularly useful to consider whether the material you need would have been published (newspapers, books) or would have had a more limited circulation (intra-office memos, personal correspondence, a private photo album.)

Think about who might have collected the material you're hoping to find:

• Published primary sources like newspapers, books, and government reports are likely to be held in libraries.
• Unpublished documents and administrative records produced by national government agencies are likely to be held in national archives; those produced by local administrations are likely to be held in municipal record offices or state archives.
• Materials produced by an organization or business will likely be held by that organization if it still exists; if it no longer exists, look for an affiliated organization or a library or archive that collects material on that topic.
• Personal papers, diaries, and materials related to local history are likely to be held in local libraries or historical societies.
• Museum, archives and libraries all have collections of art and artifacts as well a written records.

Some examples:

• The records of the U.S. federal government are held at the National Archives .
• The records of the New York City government are at the New York City Municipal Archive s (but much other important material on NYC is at the New York Public Library or the New-York Historical Society.)
• The personal papers of Harry Truman are held at the Harry S. Truman Library in Independence, Missouri.
• The records of the British East India Company are held at the British Library .
• The records of the Triangle Club are at the University Archives at Princeton.

Finally, keep in mind that the material you need may be scattered among several libraries and archives.

• Consult the bibliography, notes and acknowledgments in a good, recent secondary work on the subject that interests you -- does the writer tell you where the primary sources can be found?
• If you still haven't found that person's papers, search Worldcat for that person as an Author. You will find both published and unpublished material by that person.
• Can you identify an organization that was involved in the events you are studying? Search Worldcat for that organization as an Author.
• Search ArchiveGrid or Archive Finder , two databases that list archival collections in the U.S. and elsewhere.
• To find printed subject guides to archival resources in the library catalogs, do a keyword search for a subject term plus archiv?, e.g. brewing and archiv?
• Google your topic, using words like "papers" or "archives" as part of your search.
• Next: Finding primary sources at Princeton >>
• Last Updated: Dec 19, 2023 2:15 PM
• URL: https://libguides.princeton.edu/history/primarysources

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Finding historical primary sources: getting started.

• Getting Started
• Primary Sources Online
• Search Tools
• Finding a Type of Primary Source
• By Topic, Author, Title, Date

Definitions

Primary sources were either created during the time period being studied or were created at a later date by a participant in the events being studied (as in the case of memoirs).  They reflect the individual viewpoint of a participant or observer.  Primary sources enable the researcher to get as close as possible to what actually happened during an historical event or time period

A secondary source is a work that interprets or analyzes an historical event or phenomenon.  It is generally at least one step removed from the event is often based on primary sources.  Examples include:  scholarly or popular books and articles, reference books, and textbooks.

After you've found your primary sources, learn to analyze them using The Bancroft Library's Primary Source Analysis Exercises .

Where are Primary Sources at UCB?

Primary sources on campus may be in their original format ; examples might include:

• Patrick Breen diary (Donner Party) ( Bancroft Library )
• Julia Morgan Papers ( Environmental Design Archives )
• Chicano posters ( Chicano Studies Library )
• Social Protest Collection  (flyers, leaflets, papers) ( Bancroft Library )

Some primary sources have been reproduced in another format , for instance:

• Patrick Breen diary:  published as a book (one edition here , available to check out) and available online .
• Papers of the NAACP  (originals at the Library of Congress ; partially reproduced as a library database:  NAACP Papers:  The NAACP's Major Campaigns , and in another library database:  NAACP Papers 2:  Education, Voting, Housing Employment . )
• Newsreels (originals in various archives; available in library databases such as Academic Video Online .)
• Some historical newspapers and magazines (examples include:  San Francisco Chronicle , Harper’s Weekly , The Japan Times ) –historical full text available through a UCB Library database.

Online primary sources may be found via free web sites as well as via Library databases.

Primary sources may be physically located in any of a number of UC Berkeley Libraries , or they may be available online.

Archives are collections of original unpublished, historical and contemporary material – in other words, collections of primary sources.  Before you go to any archival collection on campus you can save time and effort if you first:

• Note the hours of each location.   Explore the library's web site and any special use conditions that may apply (registration, lockers, appointments, materials that need to be recalled from storage, restrictions on duplication, etc.)
• Search the discovery tool for the 10 UC libraries:   UC Library Search  ( guide )  to find the titles and call numbers of specific items.
• If you need to use manuscript collections, look to see if the collection has a finding aid .  Some finding aids list the contents of collections, box by box, folder by folder; others are less detailed.  Some finding aids are available online via the Online Archive of California   (the primary source itself may or may not be available online).  
• For more information about using archives (the organizations that collect manuscript collections) please see The Bancroft Library's Introduction to primary source research.

Ask for assistance (24/7 chat, appointments, etc. ) at any time!

To Know Before You Search

Think about what types of primary sources might have been produced that would be relevant to your topic; think also about which persons or organizations might have produced materials. Some possible types of sources:

Finding Background Information

Gather the information you have about your topic and consider what you still need to know before you start researching.  You can use this information in searching for primary sources .

• Names of persons involved
• Names of organizations, government agencies, societies, etc.

Many users go to Wikipedia for background information, but the Library also provides  reference works and secondary sources to help you find background information on your topic.  You may find reference sources by:

• browsing the reference collection at the appropriate campus library
• Indians of north america encyclopedias
• women diaries bibliography

Visiting the Bancroft Library

Some Bancroft materials are available online via  Calisphere , which also includes primary sources from many other California libraries and museums. Bancroft also maintains additional digital resources .

Before you go:

Be prepared! Read secondary sources and know something about your topic.

Register as a researcher. Registration is free and takes just a few minutes using the Aeon  online registration form to register in advance. For more information, see the Aeon guide .

In UC Library Search you can narrow your search to UC Berkeley special collections and archives. As you type your search, options to search different parts of the Library system appear. Narrowing your search this way is also possible in Advanced Search.

Materials must be requested using Aeon.  You must have an Aeon account to request materials . It is recommended that you request your materials in advance of your visit and to submit your requests at least one week prior to your visit to Bancroft.  For more information please visit the Aeon guide .

If the UC Library Search record mentions a finding aid (an index) to a manuscript collection, you should use it to help you find what you need in the collection.  If the finding aid is online, there will be a link from the catalog record.  Many of the finding aids that are not online are shelved near the Registration Desk at the Bancroft Library. You can also search for Bancroft finding aids in the  Online Archive of California .

Before you go, plan your visit  (and bring a quarter for a locker).

During your visit:

• Store your belongings in the lockers provided, located on the right-hand side of the east entrance. Pass the security guard station and proceed up one level by stairs or elevator to the Reading Room and Seminar Rooms (3rd floor).
• Check in at the Registration Desk, located on the left-hand side of the entrance to the Reference Center. You will need a photo ID.
• Go to the Circulation Desk, where you will be assigned a seat and can request the materials you pre-ordered.  
• For research-related questions, ask for assistance at the Reference Desk.

How to Get to the Bancroft Library

Check the current hours for the Bancroft Library .  For more information, see the Aeon guide .

The Bancroft Library is on the second floor of Doe, on the east side (the side closest to the Campanile).  See a floor plan of Doe Library 2nd floor  (pdf).

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• Last Updated: Aug 19, 2024 11:40 AM
• URL: https://guides.lib.berkeley.edu/subject-guide/163-Finding-Historical-Primary-Sources

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Information For Students

I have to write a research paper using primary sources. where do i start.

• What is the difference between Primary and Secondary sources?
• How do I cite primary source materials?
• What are Special Collections and Archives?
• Student Organizations

Primary sources are created by individuals who participated in or witnessed an event and recorded that event during or immediately after the event.

Explanation:

A student activist during the war writing about protest activities has created a memoir. This would be a primary source because the information is based on her own involvement in the events she describes. Similarly, an antiwar speech is a primary source. So is the arrest record of student protesters. A newspaper editorial or article, reporting on a student demonstration is also a primary source.

Deeds, wills, court documents, military records, tax records, census records, diaries, journals, letters, account books, advertisements, newspapers, photographs, and maps are primary sources.

Secondary sources are created by someone who was either not present when the event occurred or removed from it in time. We use secondary sources for overview information, and to help familiarize ourselves with a topic and compare that topic with other events in history.

History books, encyclopedias, historical dictionaries, and academic articles are secondary sources.

If you've never written a research paper using primary sources, it is important to understand that the process is different from using only secondary sources. Many students discover that finding and gaining access to primary source documents can be difficult. The Library website has a valuable guide to locating primary source documents. Follow the link below to be redirected to that guide:

https://libguides.furman.edu/resources/primary-sources

• Students are encouraged to seek help from the Special Collections Librarian or Research Librarians to aid in their research projects. Librarians will be able to aid students in a variety of ways including helping to locate primary source materials.

After locating appropriate primary sources, it is necessary for students to analyze and interpret them. To many students, this task can seem arduous, if not overwhelming. There are many resources available in the library as well as online, which are helpful. The National Archives website has very useful analysis worksheets that can help students to determine the significance of primary source documents. Links to PDF files of these worksheets are listed below:

Written Document | Artifact | Cartoon | Map | Motion Picture | Photograph | Poster | Sound Recording

• << Previous: Archival Research
• Next: What is the difference between Primary and Secondary sources? >>
• Last Updated: May 14, 2024 2:53 PM
• URL: https://libguides.furman.edu/special-collections/for-students

Research Paper: A step-by-step guide: 4. Appropriate Sources

• 1. Getting Started
• 2. Topic Ideas
• 3. Thesis Statement & Outline
• 4. Appropriate Sources
• 5. Search Techniques
• 6. Taking Notes & Documenting Sources
• 7. Evaluating Sources
• 8. Citations & Plagiarism
• 9. Writing Your Research Paper

What Source Should You Use?

What type of information do you need.

The type of sources you might need for your research will depend on the type of research you are conducting. Familiarizing yourself with various types of sources will help you with both your current paper and future research. Below you will find a quick overview of common types of resources that will help you navigate how best to choose sources for your research.

 Broad categories of information and where you can find them can be broken down into the following areas:

• Background or introductory information - dictionaries or encyclopedias as found in Gale eBooks
• General information - history or overview - try books from the library catalog
• News and current events - newspapers and current periodicals - try NewsBank  or the New York Times
• Scholarly information - scholarly journal articles in databases
• Discipline specific information - discipline specific databases

Scholarly Resources

Scholarly resources (sometimes called academic resources) have the following qualities:

• Written by experts with credentials or affiliations (PhD, M.D.)
• Written for other experts - each work is a voice in an ongoing conversation
• Scholarly language - technical, discipline specific vocabulary
• Verifiable and reliable evidence - look for citations
• Peer reviewed - editorial process where other experts review and assess information 

Peer review is an important process in scholarly communication. The process of peer review is supposed to ensure that corrections are made to an article before publication, holding the article's content to a higher standard. 

Scholarly journals are the main publication format for scholarly research. Most scholarly journals are available for students online and are accessible through library databases. Find out more about library databases below. 

Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Resources

Sometimes you will be asked to find resources categorized as primary, secondary, or tertiary resources. For historical research, the library has an excellent guide, Understanding Historical Sources ,  breaking down these types of resources and where you can find them. 

It should be noted that a primary source in the scientific disciplines looks a little different than a primary historical source. Put simply, a primary source in the sciences would be the original research, data, or material that forms the basis for other research. For example, the first time research about a new scientific discovery is published would be the primary source. A paper that analyzes or interprets the original research would be a secondary source. A tertiary source would collect and summarize the information from both the primary and secondary sources. 

Choosing a Resource

The library has many way to help you narrow down what source to use for your research.

• Contact a librarian by email at [email protected]
• Get individualized help from a subject librarian 
• Check out our list of subject research guides
• Watch a video tutorial on one of our specific databases

Choosing the Best Database for Your Project

You will learn about search techniques in a later step of the research process. But for now you can watch a quick video that will help you determine how to choose the best database for your project . 

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• Next: 5. Search Techniques >>
• Last Updated: Apr 18, 2023 12:12 PM
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Q. How can I find primary sources?

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Answered By: APUS Librarians Last Updated: Aug 15, 2023     Views: 49224

The answer really depends on what you are looking for...there are many different kinds of primary sources, and they can be found in many of our library's databases.  So , first be sure that you understand what sets primary sources apart from secondary and tertiary sources .

Once you've done that, think about the kind of primary source that you need for your research project (a speech, letter, interview, etc.?).    

Then try these options:

• Visit the library's Primary Source Research page.  There you will find useful archives terminology and  help with locating a variety of primary sources, including links to digital collections from archives and museums.  
• Explore JSTOR's primary source collection.  It includes   artworks, photographs, publications, recordings, and other artifacts from libraries, museums, archives, and historical societies around the world.
• Use the Primary Source Document option under "Publication Type" (look beneath the search box), which will let you limit your search results to primary documents only.  Be sure to read here about how EBSCO defines "primary source document."
• You can also use the Document Type option to select specific types of sources (interviews, speeches or letters would be primary, for example, while an article could be either primary or secondary). 

Click image to view larger:

• Search the library's ProQuest databases:    Look for the Advanced Search  link, then scroll down to find the Document Type option, much like the one in EBSCO.   Use it to target specific types of primary sources, like interviews or speeches.   Click image to view larger:

• Newspaper articles are often considered primary sources (especially those that report events and interviews).  Click here to learn how to search for newspaper articles.  
• Research articles are primary sources, and you can find them in many of our databases.  Click here to read more about research articles.  
• Diaries are also considered primary sources, and you can search for those from the library's book tab .  
• The library's American History in Video database contains primary source videos that allow students to analyze "historical events, and their presentation over time, through commercial and governmental newsreels, archival footage, public affairs footage, and important documentaries."
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Lesson 1: Primary Sources Defined with Examples

Photograph of Senator Jacob K. Javits at the "March on Washington," August 28, 1963. Senator Jacob K. Javits Collection, Special Collections, SBU Libraries. Photograph credit: Bruce Jay Colan.

LESSON 1:  PRIMARY SOURCES DEFINED WITH EXAMPLES 1.1 What are Primary Sources? 1.2 What are Secondary and Tertiary Sources? 1.3 Genres, Types, and Formats of Primary Sources 1.4 Nature of Primary Sources

1.1 What are Primary Sources?

A primary source , according to the Society of American Archivists, is “material that contains firsthand accounts of events and that was created contemporaneous to those events or later recalled by an eyewitness.” For inclusivity, and to account for Indigenous and other cultural ways of knowing, it is important to think beyond materiality and recognize intangible and ephemeral modes of information transfer. A primary source therefore communicates an accounting of history conveyed by a witness or through multi-generational transmission.

Diversity of Primary Sources There is a diverse range of genres, content, and formats in which primary sources are represented.

For example, an 18th century memoir in original book format and an Instagram post uploaded a minute ago in digital format are both primary sources. 

Artifacts and specimens, or items found near primary sources such as tools, specimens and plant-based materials also fall within the scope of primary source evidence. 

More examples: textual or written works such as letters and manuscripts; books written at the time under study; interviews and concert performances; digital satellite maps; nontextual works (paintings, photographs); fossils; jewelry; and social media communications.

Example 1: Below is a section of a map hand-drawn by Stony Brook graduate Larry Auerbach in 1978. The entire map of the SBU campus is available to consult in Special Collections and University Archives at SBU. Some questions to consider when examining and researching this primary source might include:

• Why might have this map been drawn?
• What does it depict?
• How was it made?
• Who was the intended audience?
• What was the artist's point of view and tone? 

Auerbach, Larry. Section from The State University of New York at Stony Brook…: A Vision from the Clouds , 1978.  University Archives, SBU Libraries.

Example 2: Below is the cover of The Red Cross Cookery Book . It is thought to be published in Hong Kong and was printed by South China Morning Post in 1919. The book is available to consult in Special Collections and University Archives at SBU. Questions to consider when examining and researching this primary sources could include:

• Why was it made?
• What world and socio-economic events influenced its production?
• What does the illustration depict and convey?
• What type of information does it contain? 
• How many copies exist in libraries? What factors might account for this number?

League of Red Cross Societies. The Red Cross Cookery Book . [Hong Kong]: Printed by South China Morning Post, 1919.  Jacqueline M. Newman Chinese Cookbook Collections, Special Collections, SBU Libraries.

Considerations for Assessing Primary Sources The process of evaluating primary sources is multi-dimensional. It includes assessing physical characteristics (materiality), considering the creator's intent, determining the intended audience, and factoring in potential biases. 

It is also important to evaluate the "provenance" of primary sources. Provenance is a term frequently used in historical research and in archival repositories to refer to the origin or source of something. Custodial history and transmission of information can provide insights into the perspective of the creator and the circumstances under which a source may have been created.

1.2 What are Secondary and Tertiary Sources?

Secondary and tertiary sources can support your arguments, findings, and points of view about primary sources. 

Secondary sources are interpretative works or analyses produced through researching, consulting, and studying primary sources.  Examples include works written from a historical perspective later in time such as reviews, textbooks, biographies, and indexes.

Left to right:

1) Gelber, Sidney. Politics and Public Higher Education in New York State: Stony Brook-a Case History . New York, NY: Peter Lang, 2001.  2) Shorter, Edward, and Max Fink.  The Madness of Fear: A History of Catatonia . New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. 3) Teplitsky, Joshua. Prince of the Press: How One Collector Built History's Most Enduring and Remarkable Jewish Library . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2019.

Tertiary sources are summaries of topics and subjects compiled from a variety of primary and secondary sources. Examples include Wikipedia and encyclopedia entries, timelines, chronologies, bibliographies, directories, and handbooks.

1.3 Genres, Types, and Formats of Primary Sources

Primary sources are diverse and exist in nearly all formats. They are found in many genres (e.g., fiction, interview), mediums (physical representation; how they are made) and formats (how they are accessible). 

Preservation of Primary Sources Over time, the condition of primary sources can become compromised due to age, environmental conditions, and technological obsolescence. For example, books can become brittle and dry, while equipment and formats used for sound recordings may eventually become out-of-date and unsustainable. 

To preserve sources, they may be migrated to newer formats which can increase access and reduce handling of the original materials.

Each example below is a primary source; the only difference is the way you access them. 

Example 1: an autobiography in hardcopy book format (analog: print or paper) and the digital version of the exact same work in e-book format (digital: pdf). 

Example 2: a vinyl album (analog) of a live Beatles' performance and the digital file of the same performance downloaded from iTunes.

Conservation or restoration processes can improve the physical condition of archival materials and books, and consequently extend longevity and improve access, as with papers from the Eversley Childs Collection (below).

EXAMPLES OF FORMS AND TYPES OF PRIMARY SOURCES 

To illustrate the diversity of primary sources, review the list below. 

Archives: this word has multiple meanings; it can refer to a physical place or virtual space where archival materials are maintained and stored, or a collection of materials produced by a person or organization. Examples of archival collections include:

• Film archive of programs recorded at the Poetry Center at SBU in the 1960s and 1970s  
• Papers of Environmental Defense Fund, the organization whose efforts in 1967 led to the nationwide ban on DDT and the birth of modern environmental law

Artifacts, Objects, and Biofacts: tangible items of cultural or historical significance and interest. Examples include tools, vases, and jewelry. Biofacts are natural organic materials such as bones, charcoal, and plant materials.

• Pin-back buttons with imagery and statements related to 20th century U.S. politics, events, and activism

• Skeleton of the 70 million year old dinosaur Majungasaurus crenatissimus from Madagascar, discovered by SBU paleontologists (a replica nicknamed "Stony Bones" on exhibit in the Administration Building)

Artworks : visually express ideas, feelings, and sentiments, and can document events in the form of photographs, drawings, paintings, and sculptures. Examples:

• Photographs of SBU displayed along the second floor mezzanine in the Melville Library
• Installation of the September 11 Memorial Arch situated between the Humanities and Psychology Buildings

Books: published works written during the time period of the content under study or described such as memoirs, autobiographies, and works published at the time of the event. Eyewitness testimonies can also be published in book format. Example:

• Cyclists' Paradise: A Guide for Cyclists with an Accurate Map Showing the Roads and Cycle Paths of Long Island: with Notes, Suggestions, Runs, Hotels and Time Tables Sufficient to Enable Any One to "Lay Out a Trip" Intelligently . Long Island City, NY: Issued by the Long Island Railroad Co, 1899. 

Beginning in the mid-19th century, the Long Island Rail Road produced countless numbers of travel and guidebooks touting Long Island as both an ideal resort destination and as a place to permanently reside. This map is part of an 18 page booklet that outlined a variety of routes for bicyclists to navigate the island. The roads in red were categorized as good, fair, and poor, however the small scale of the map and the blurred printing may have impacted bicyclists' attempts to "lay out a trip intelligently," as the title suggests. This book has been digitized by SBU Libraries and can viewed here . 

Correspondence: communication exchanges through letter writing in any medium from paper to e-mail to tweets. Example:

• Communications handwritten on postcards found within the Long Island Postcard Collection

Data: data sets; observations made during the conduct of experiments. Examples:

• Naturalist's Robert Cushman Murphy's field notes made during oceanic cruises in the 1930s
• Dr. Max Fink's handwritten notes and papers on psychiatric studies and experiments

Dissertations: a document often in the form of a research paper or analysis completed in fulfillment of an academic degree. Example:

• Electronic dissertations authored by SBU students between 2007 and 2012       

Ephemera: an item produced to communicate information and expected to have only short-term or temporary usefulness. Example:

• Concert poster announcing the artists and musicians performing at the 2019 Brookfest at Stony Brook University 

Government Publications: Laws, acts, hearings, and census data fall within this category. Example:

• Census data from the U.S. Government

Manuscripts: a handwritten work; an unpublished work or a book, or document created using any means.

• Illuminated manuscript leaf written and illustrated in the 15th century

Maps: graphical, visual works that show features of Earth including landscapes, topography, and geography at a specific time and from a point of view. Example:

• Burr, David. H. Map of Suffolk County from An Atlas of the State of New York: Containing a Map of the Documents Deposited in the Public Offices of the State and other Original and Authentic Information under the Superintendence and Direction of Simeon de Witt, Surveyor General, Pursuant to an Act of the Legislature; and also the Physical Geography of the State and of the Several Counties and Statistical Tables of the Same . New York: D. H. Burr, 1829. (Pictured: Town of Brookhaven, New York section)

Oral and Video Histories: interviews, discussions, and conversations recorded or documented to glean insights to a person's perspective and history.

• Conversation between James Simons and C.N. Yang: Stony Brook Masters Series

Patents: a license or government entity designating right or title for a set period, especially the sole right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention. Example:

• A sampling of patents filed by the State University of New York

Performances and recounting: dancing, singing, and storytelling

Recordings: Audio and video recordings of sights and sounds at the moment of capture. Speeches, performances, and lectures could fall within this category. Example:

• September 1962 audio recording of New York U.S. Senator Jacob K. Javits' announcements for his re-election campaign

Senator Jacob K. Javits campaign, 1962. Photograph from the Senator Jacob K. Javits Collection. Special Collections, SBU Libraries.

Serials: a work such as a newspaper or magazine that is published and issued at an established frequency, e.g., bi-weekly, monthly, annually. Example:

• Issues of the The Stony Brook Press, the student newspaper founded in 1979

Social Media: websites and applications that support networking and communicating timely information including blogs, vlogs, tweets, and posts to Facebook and Instagram. Example:

• SBU Special Collections’ Instagram post using an original photograph of the SB Union under construction in 1967

Visual Materials: broadly encompass a wide range of forms including films, photographs, artworks, and artifacts. Examples: 

• Interview conducted in April 2019 with SBU Alumni and Founders of the Roth Pond Regatta (30th anniversary)
• Photograph of the 1969 SBU Baseball Team

1.4 Nature of Primary Sources

Later in this tutorial, you will encounter guided questions to help you evaluate primary sources. To introduce you to the investigative process, here is a short list of questions to consider as you progress in your research.

• Who is the author or creator?
• What biases or assumptions may have influenced the author or creator?
• Did the source have influence on the audience?
• Has the source been edited or translated? Was the meaning altered?

TO COMPLETE LESSON 1:

1. Click here to access the QUIZ for Lesson 1   - it will open in a new window. 2. Answer all of the questions and submit your responses.  3. Return to this page and click below on "Next: Continue to Lesson 2."

  Next: Continue to Lesson 2... 

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• What Are Credible Sources & How to Spot Them | Examples

What Are Credible Sources & How to Spot Them | Examples

Published on August 26, 2021 by Tegan George . Revised on May 9, 2024.

A credible source is free from bias and backed up with evidence. It is written by a trustworthy author or organization.

There are a lot of sources out there, and it can be hard to tell what’s credible and what isn’t at first glance.

Evaluating source credibility is an important information literacy skill. It ensures that you collect accurate information to back up the arguments you make and the conclusions you draw.

Table of contents

Types of sources, how to identify a credible source, the craap test, where to find credible sources, evaluating web sources, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions.

There are many different types of sources , which can be divided into three categories: primary sources , secondary sources , and tertiary sources .

Primary sources are often considered the most credible in terms of providing evidence for your argument, as they give you direct evidence of what you are researching. However, it’s up to you to ensure the information they provide is reliable and accurate.

You will likely use a combination of the three types over the course of your research process .

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There are a few criteria to look at right away when assessing a source. Together, these criteria form what is known as the CRAAP test .

• The information should be up-to-date and current.
• The source should be relevant to your research.
• The author and publication should be a trusted authority on the subject you are researching.
• The sources the author cited should be easy to find, clear, and unbiased.
• For web sources, the URL and layout should signify that it is trustworthy.

The CRAAP test is a catchy acronym that will help you evaluate the credibility of a source you are thinking about using. California State University developed it in 2004 to help students remember best practices for evaluating content.

• C urrency: Is the source up-to-date?
• R elevance: Is the source relevant to your research?
• A uthority: Where is the source published? Who is the author? Are they considered reputable and trustworthy in their field?
• A ccuracy: Is the source supported by evidence? Are the claims cited correctly?
• P urpose: What was the motive behind publishing this source?

The criteria for evaluating each point depend on your research topic .

For example, if you are researching cutting-edge scientific technology, a source from 10 years ago will not be sufficiently current . However, if you are researching the Peloponnesian War, a source from 200 years ago would be reasonable to refer to.

Be careful when ascertaining purpose . It can be very unclear (often by design!) what a source’s motive is. For example, a journal article discussing the efficacy of a particular medication may seem credible, but if the publisher is the manufacturer of the medication, you can’t be sure that it is free from bias. As a rule of thumb, if a source is even passively trying to convince you to purchase something, it may not be credible.

Newspapers can be a great way to glean first-hand information about a historical event or situate your research topic within a broader context. However, the veracity and reliability of online news sources can vary enormously—be sure to pay careful attention to authority here.

When evaluating academic journals or books published by university presses, it’s always a good rule of thumb to ensure they are peer-reviewed and published in a reputable journal.

What is peer review?

The peer review process evaluates submissions to academic journals. A panel of reviewers in the same subject area decide whether a submission should be accepted for publication based on a set of criteria.

For this reason, academic journals are often considered among the most credible sources you can use in a research project– provided that the journal itself is trustworthy and well-regarded.

What sources you use depend on the kind of research you are conducting.

For preliminary research and getting to know a new topic, you could use a combination of primary, secondary, and tertiary sources.

• Encyclopedias
• Websites with .edu or .org domains
• News sources with first-hand reporting
• Research-oriented magazines like ScienceMag or Nature Weekly .

As you dig deeper into your scholarly research, books and academic journals are usually your best bet.

Academic journals are often a great place to find trustworthy and credible content, and are considered one of the most reliable sources you can use in academic writing.

• Is the journal indexed in academic databases?
• Has the journal had to retract many articles?
• Are the journal’s policies on copyright and peer review easily available?
• Are there solid “About” and “ Scope ” pages detailing what sorts of articles they publish?
• Has the author of the article published other articles? A quick Google Scholar search will show you.
• Has the author been cited by other scholars? Google Scholar also has a function called “Cited By” that can show you where the author has been cited. A high number of “Cited By” results can often be a measurement of credibility.

Google Scholar is a search engine for academic sources. This is a great place to kick off your research. You can also consider using an academic database like LexisNexis or government open data to get started.

Open Educational Resources , or OERs, are materials that have been licensed for “free use” in educational settings. Legitimate OERs can be a great resource. Be sure they have a Creative Commons license allowing them to be duplicated and shared, and meet the CRAAP test criteria, especially in the authority section. The OER Commons is a public digital library that is curated by librarians, and a solid place to start.

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It can be especially challenging to verify the credibility of online sources. They often do not have single authors or publication dates, and their motivation can be more difficult to ascertain.

Websites are not subject to the peer-review and editing process that academic journals or books go through, and can be published by anyone at any time.

When evaluating the credibility of a website, look first at the URL. The domain extension can help you understand what type of website you’re dealing with.

• Educational resources end in .edu, and are generally considered the most credible in academic settings.
• Advocacy or non-profit organizations end in .org.
• Government-affiliated websites end in .gov.
• Websites with some sort of commercial aspect end in .com (or .co.uk, or another country-specific domain).

In general, check for vague terms, buzzwords, or writing that is too emotive or subjective . Beware of grandiose claims, and critically analyze anything not cited or backed up by evidence.

• How does the website look and feel? Does it look professional to you?
• Is there an “About Us” page, or a way to contact the author or organization if you need clarification on a claim they have made?
• Are there links to other sources on the page, and are they trustworthy?
• Can the information you found be verified elsewhere, even via a simple Google search?
• When was the website last updated? If it hasn’t been updated recently, it may not pass the CRAAP test.
• Does the website have a lot of advertisements or sponsored content? This could be a sign of bias.
• Is a source of funding disclosed? This could also give you insight into the author and publisher’s motivations.

Social media posts, blogs, and personal websites can be good resources for a situational analysis or grounding of your preliminary ideas, but exercise caution here. These highly personal and subjective sources are seldom reliable enough to stand on their own in your final research product.

Similarly, Wikipedia is not considered a reliable source due to the fact that it can be edited by anyone at any time. However, it can be a good starting point for general information and finding other sources.

Checklist: Is my source credible?

My source is relevant to my research topic.

My source is recent enough to contain up-to-date information on my topic.

There are no glaring grammatical or orthographic errors.

The author is an expert in their field.

The information provided is accurate to the best of my knowledge. I have checked that it is supported by evidence and/or verifiable elsewhere.

My source cites or links to other sources that appear relevant and trustworthy.

There is a way to contact the author or publisher of my source.

The purpose of my source is to educate or inform, not to sell a product or push a particular opinion.

My source is unbiased, and offers multiple perspectives fairly.

My source avoids vague or grandiose claims, and writing that is too emotive or subjective.

[For academic journals]: My source is peer-reviewed and published in a reputable and established journal.

[For web sources]: The layout of my source is professional and recently updated. Backlinks to other sources are up-to-date and not broken.

[For web sources]: My source’s URL suggests the domain is trustworthy, e.g. a .edu address.

Your sources are likely to be credible!

If you want to know more about ChatGPT, AI tools , citation , and plagiarism , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• ChatGPT vs human editor
• ChatGPT citations
• Is ChatGPT trustworthy?
• Using ChatGPT for your studies
• What is ChatGPT?
• Chicago style
• Paraphrasing

 Plagiarism

• Types of plagiarism
• Self-plagiarism
• Avoiding plagiarism
• Academic integrity
• Consequences of plagiarism
• Common knowledge

A credible source should pass the CRAAP test  and follow these guidelines:

• The information should be up to date and current.
• For a web source, the URL and layout should signify that it is trustworthy.

Peer review is a process of evaluating submissions to an academic journal. Utilizing rigorous criteria, a panel of reviewers in the same subject area decide whether to accept each submission for publication. For this reason, academic journals are often considered among the most credible sources you can use in a research project– provided that the journal itself is trustworthy and well-regarded.

The CRAAP test is an acronym to help you evaluate the credibility of a source you are considering using. It is an important component of information literacy .

The CRAAP test has five main components:

• Currency: Is the source up to date?
• Relevance: Is the source relevant to your research?
• Authority: Where is the source published? Who is the author? Are they considered reputable and trustworthy in their field?
• Accuracy: Is the source supported by evidence? Are the claims cited correctly?
• Purpose: What was the motive behind publishing this source?

Academic dishonesty can be intentional or unintentional, ranging from something as simple as claiming to have read something you didn’t to copying your neighbor’s answers on an exam.

You can commit academic dishonesty with the best of intentions, such as helping a friend cheat on a paper. Severe academic dishonesty can include buying a pre-written essay or the answers to a multiple-choice test, or falsifying a medical emergency to avoid taking a final exam.

To determine if a source is primary or secondary, ask yourself:

• Was the source created by someone directly involved in the events you’re studying (primary), or by another researcher (secondary)?
• Does the source provide original information (primary), or does it summarize information from other sources (secondary)?
• Are you directly analyzing the source itself (primary), or only using it for background information (secondary)?

Some types of source are nearly always primary: works of art and literature, raw statistical data, official documents and records, and personal communications (e.g. letters, interviews ). If you use one of these in your research, it is probably a primary source.

Primary sources are often considered the most credible in terms of providing evidence for your argument, as they give you direct evidence of what you are researching. However, it’s up to you to ensure the information they provide is reliable and accurate.

Always make sure to properly cite your sources to avoid plagiarism .

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EDF3514: History of Education in the U.S.

Primary & secondary sources.

• Assignment Instructions
• Getting Started
• Searching for Primary Sources
• Searching in PRIMO
• Searching in a Subject Specific Database
• Searching in Google Scholar

Primary and Secondary Sources

 What's the difference between a primary and secondary source? Hacker & Fister (2015) defines them as follows:

Primary source:

An original source, such as a speech, a diary, a novel, a legislative bill, a laboratory study, a field research report, or an eyewitness account. While not necessarily more reliable than a secondary source, a primary source has the advantage of being closely related to the information it conveys and as such is often considered essential for research, particularly in history. In the sciences, reports of new research written by the scientists who conducted it are considered primary sources. (p.272)

Primary sources provide first-hand or contemporary documentation of the time period, culture, events, people, and places you are researching. Whether or not a source is a primary source sometimes depends on context. Examples of primary sources include:

• Government documents
• Photographs

Secondary source:

A source that comments on, analyzes, or otherwise relies on primary sources. An article in a newspaper that reports on a scientific discovery or a book that analyzes a writer's work is a secondary source. (p.273)

Secondary sources are works that analyze, interpret, and synthesize information from a combination of primary sources and other secondary sources. Secondary sources can sometimes also be primary sources. These can include:

• Journal articles
• Conference papers
• Dissertations and Theses
• Scholarly books

Hacker, D. & Fister, B. (2018). Research and documentation in the digital age (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Bedford.

Special and Area Studies Collections

In addition to searching library databases for primary sources, the Special and Area Studies Collections includes unique materials and digital collections. This will be further explored on the page Searching for Primary Sources .

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Peer Review and Primary Literature: An Introduction: Is it Primary Research? How Do I Know?

• Scholarly Journal vs. Magazine
• Peer Review: What is it?
• Finding Peer-Reviewed Articles
• Primary Journal Literature
• Is it Primary Research? How Do I Know?

Components of a Primary Research Study

As indicated on a previous page, Peer-Reviewed Journals also include non -primary content. Simply limiting your search results in a database to "peer-reviewed" will not retrieve a list of only primary research studies.

Learn to recognize the parts of a primary research study. Terminology will vary slightly from discipline to discipline and from journal to journal.  However, there are common components to most research studies.

When you run a search, find a promising article in your results list and then look at the record for that item (usually by clicking on the title). The full database record for an item usually includes an abstract or summary--sometimes prepared by the journal or database, but often written by the author(s) themselves. This will usually give a clear indication of whether the article is a primary study.  For example, here is a full database record from a search for family violence and support in SocINDEX with Full Text :

Although the abstract often tells the story, you will need to read the article to know for sure. Besides scanning the Abstract or Summary, look for the following components: (I am only capturing small article segments for illustration.)

Look for the words METHOD or METHODOLOGY . The authors should explain how they conducted their research.

NOTE: Different Journals and Disciplines will use different terms to mean similar things. If instead of " Method " or " Methodology " you see a heading that says " Research Design " or " Data Collection ," you have a similar indicator that the scholar-authors have done original research.

Look for the section called RESULTS . This details what the author(s) found out after conducting their research.

Charts , Tables , Graphs , Maps and other displays help to summarize and present the findings of the research.

A Discussion indicates the significance of findings, acknowledges limitations of the research study, and suggests further research.

References , a Bibliography or List of Works Cited indicates a literature review and shows other studies and works that were consulted. USE THIS PART OF THE STUDY! If you find one or two good recent studies, you can identify some important earlier studies simply by going through the bibliographies of those articles.

A FINAL NOTE:  If you are ever unclear about whether a particular article is appropriate to use in your paper, it is best to show that article to your professor and discuss it with them.  The professor is the final judge since they will be assigning your grade.

Subject Guide

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• Last Updated: Aug 21, 2024 10:06 AM
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